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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28211103">The Order of the Seven</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhaenaTargaryen/pseuds/RhaenaTargaryen'>RhaenaTargaryen</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Blood and Violence, Rape/Non-con Elements, Tragedy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:47:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>39,190</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28211103</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhaenaTargaryen/pseuds/RhaenaTargaryen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Leytiri is a month shy of four years old when bandits attack her village, killing all of her people, including her mother.  A traveling mage happens upon the village during the attack and saves Leytiri from being killed.  He invites her into the order of monks he belongs to, The Order of the Seven, and she grows to become a powerful member, intent on getting revenge for her lost loved ones.  But shortly into adulthood Leytiri breaks one of the Order's most precious oaths and is banished from Skyrim because of it.  She is caught trying to flee from Skyrim and is taken to Helgen where her true journey as the Dovahkiin begins.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prentis Lovrik</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Warnings for this chapter include violence and Non-Con/Rape.</p><p>This chapter will be the POV of Prentis but for the rest of the story most of the chapters will be in Leytiri's POV but on occasion it will go back to Prentis or who knows, maybe other characters depending on how long this story gets.  Leytiri, starting tomorrow, will be my new Skyrim character.  I will be playing the game as I write so while I have the gist of the story in my mind I really will be writing as I play through the story.  I will be writing all of the main quests into the story and at least all of the group quests (Companions, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood).    I will also be creating my own quests when it comes to the Order of the Seven which I'm pretty stoked about.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Prentis Lovrik sighed for what had to be the dozenth time in five minutes as the rain steadily pattered around him.  Even with his hood up it still couldn’t keep out the chill and wetness of the wind and rain.  Really, he shouldn’t complain, the storm had dulled significantly and now it was merely an annoyance.  The water made trekking through the mountains south-west of Markarth dangerous but not unmanageable for him.  </p><p>He had traveled by foot from his temple in the Reach to the Rift on a mission for the leaders of his order, and decided to take a carriage back to Markarth.  It had taken much haggling, but he had finally been able to convince the driver to drive him as close to the temple as possible.  As soon as they got to Markarth however the fool got so drunk on ale he couldn’t get up in the morning and Prentis could not wait any longer.  So he decided to walk the nearly twenty-five miles home.  </p><p>Not five miles after leaving Markarth did the wind begin to howl and buckets of rain poured onto him.  During the worst of the storm he had tried to use a barrier in an attempt to keep himself dry, but that had proven to be futile.  Restoration magic was never his strong suit and it had been rather difficult to sustain his barrier for so long.  Sure enough, despite his best efforts, some of the raindrops did manage to make it through.</p><p>Suddenly, the steady rain slowed to a sprinkle and, had he been a younger man, Prentis might have whooped with joy.  He knew that if he walked one more mile he would get to a little village where he could enjoy a warm hearth, a nice pint of ale, and perhaps a lady to share his bed with for the night.  </p><p>He picked up his pace, excited for the warmth of the village after such a cold and very long night.  He had always loved the little village, so small and remote it didn’t even have a name.  The Nords who founded the place welcomed everyone including the elves, the Imperials, the Khajiit, and even the Argonians.  On occasion the Khajiit caravans travel to the quaint little village and the children loved spending time with them.  </p><p>Lightning flashed across the sky as he began to descend the mountain along the path to the village.  Suddenly a shriek hits his ears over the wind.  He quickly casts the spells to turn himself invisible and muffle his footsteps before he runs in the direction of the village.  Prentis rushes around a bend in the road but stops dead.  </p><p>Most of the houses if not all of them are on fire.  The flames dance and roar and he listens as several dozen people scream as the bandits flank them.  He can see the butcher, a kind and gentle soul who cried over the animals he had to put down for the sake of the village, lying on the ground blood sliding down his slit throat as he chokes on his own blood.  The daughter of the town elder lies naked, screaming, and face down in the mud as three of the animals take turns on her.  The body of a dark elf boy lies in the middle of the street, missing his head.  </p><p>Prentis swallows hard.  The order is solitary, and rarely to members roam far past the gates of the temple.  They swore oaths, though, that if they ever saw an innocent in danger they were duty bound to defend that person even at the cost of their own life.  But he looked at all the dead people and all the ones being tortured, there was nothing he could do for them!  He would die in the attempt to save a single life, and that life would surely die shortly after his head rolled.  </p><p>Edging slowly down the pathway he knew that he could make it past the village without alerting the Forsworn.  He stepped slowly, never losing concentration from his spells, knowing that if the spells fell from him the Forsworn would be on him within seconds.  The elders daughter screams again, over and over, but over her screams he can hear the bandits moans and wet, slapping noises.  His stomach twists in his stomach and he clamps his hand over his mouth, not positive that if he pukes the bandits won’t see be able to see the contents of his stomach magically come flying from the air.  The only thing that enters his mind as he walks away from the girl is, ‘coward’.  </p><p>“Run!”  He turns towards a voice that he knows.</p><p>“Run Leytiri!  Run!  Run Ley-ley!”  </p><p>In shock, Prentis watches a High Elf woman shove a girl in his direction.  The girl, a High Elf, runs on her short stubby legs as fast as she can towards Prentis.  As she passes him her golden colored eyes pass over him briefly and he checks to make sure his spell is still active.  </p><p>“Hey get her!”  Two of the men with the elders daughter point at the child, Leytiri, and they get up to run to her.  Leytiri’s mother, who was trying to edge her way back the way he came, instead ran towards the bandits and screamed for them to take her instead.  One of the men shrugs and grabs Leytiri’s mother by the back of her hair and pushes her down to the ground.  </p><p>Prentis takes one step towards Leytiri’s mother, then another.  If those fuckers do what he thinks they’re going to do he’ll tear them apart!  Out of the corner of his eye though he sees the other man start up the pathway that would eventually take you to the temple.  Leytiri…</p><p>He takes one last look at Leytiri’s mother, knowing it would truly be the last.  Watching,  heart pounding as the monster positions Leytiri’s mother, dress torn, on her hands and knees in front of him.  Leytiri’s mother looks up in the direction her daughter had run and looked right at him.  She blinks twice, shocked, before he watched as a single tear slid down her left cheek.  The monster digs his fingers into her hips as he thrusts hard inside of her.  Leytiri’s mother screams as Prentis<br/>
turns and runs in the same direction Leytiri had.  </p><p>His heart pounds in his chest as he races towards the bandit and Leytiri, he didn’t know if the bandit wanted to kill her, enslave her, or worse but he wouldn’t let it happen.  </p><p>Just as Prentis rounds another bend he hears the bandit curse, “get the fuck down from there!”  </p><p>His eyes lock onto Leytiri, already halfway up a tree like a little monkey.  The bandit reaches for her foot and she kicks him.  “Get down you brat!”  </p><p>Leytiri situates herself onto a branch, out of his reach.  Her eyes are filled with tears and there are smudge marks of dirt on her cheeks and clothes, but she is unhurt.  Her eyes find Prentis and he flexes his fingers, willing himself to disappear from her sight but her eyes never leave his.  </p><p>The bandit roars and pulls his sword from his belt.  “If you don’t come down now I’ll run you through girl!”  </p><p>Prentis raises his hand and twirls his fingers until a ball of ice forms in his palm.  Illusion and destruction spells have long been his most powerful magic, and Leytiri, wide eyed, watches as the ice ball floats in his hand.  He forms the ball into a dagger and he flings it with all of his might towards the bandit.  </p><p>The ice blade sinks into the back of the bandits neck and through to the front of his throat.  He clutches at his neck as he falls to his knees, blood pouring down his shirt into the earth below him.  It takes awhile for him to die, body shaking, eventually face down choking in the mud.  The entire time Leytiri and Prentis do not remove their eyes from each other.</p><p>The bandit makes one last gurgle noise in what is left of his throat as Prentis steps towards the tree, hands outstretched willing Leytiri to jump.  She hesitates for only a moment before she jumps from the branch into his arms and he holds her close to him as he turns in the direction of the temple.  </p><p>The Order of the Seven had not had a new initiate in nearly ten years.  Would Leytiri become one of them?  One of him?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Leytiri's Ghosts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Fire crackles and screams fill the air.  The smoke is thick and Leytiri struggles not to throw up.  Her mothers nails dig into her shoulders as they stand in their doorway, watching in horror as the butchers blood shoots into the air from the slit in his throat.  The elder’s daughter screams but Leytiri’s mother covers her eyes when she turns to look.  </p><p>Two dozen or more bandits hack and slash at the villagers and burn the buildings.  The men and women and children run back and forth, trying to escape to no avail.  Leytiri’s mother kneels down and grips Leytiri’s face in her hands, “you must run to the temple and demand to see Prentis Lovrik.  He is a dear friend and will come to help us.  He will keep you safe.  I will run for Markarth.  The Order may not be able to take care of the bandits alone, we need the Jarl.”  </p><p>Tears drip down Leytiri’s cheeks, “no, mama!  I want to stay with you!”  </p><p>Her mother grips her face harder, “I will always be with you.  Now go, run!”  </p><p>Heart racing, Leytiri turns and runs as fast as she can in the direction of the path to the temple.  She doesn’t make it far before a laughing bandit steps into her path.  Drunk, he tries to grab her but he misses.  </p><p>“Run!  Run Leytiri! Run! Run Ley-ley!”  </p><p>Upon hearing her mother’s voice again Leytiri dashes away from the bandit as he tries to grab her again.  As she makes her way up the stone path she sees a robed man standing in the middle of the road, immobile.  As she passes him their eyes meet for a second before she continues on.  </p><p>“Hey get her!”  </p><p>Knowing that they mean her Leytiri tries hard to quicken her pace though she knows that the men are much bigger and have stronger legs than hers.  Suddenly behind her she hears her mother scream, “take me instead!”  </p><p>Leytiri pumps her legs and arms harder, trying as hard as she can to block out all of the screams especially her mothers.  ‘The Order of the Seven’, she thinks, ‘they will help mama.  They will save everyone else!’  </p><p>She can hear a bandit close behind her and she knows that she won’t be able to outrun him.  She sees a few trees off of the path and she runs to them.  A couple of the boys in the village had taught her how to climb and it was easy for her to scramble up the trunk.  </p><p>The bandit reaches the tree and makes a mad swipe for her foot, “get the fuck down from there!”  He reaches again and she kicks him will all of her might, “get down you brat!”  </p><p>Leytiri wraps her legs around a branch as her eyes fill with tears, she’s trapped.  She wouldn’t be able to do what her mother asked her to do.  She knew that she would die here, now.  Suddenly, Leytiri sees a man behind the bandit, the robed man.  </p><p>The bandit yells and pulls out his sword, a long, scary thing that Leytiri knew would hurt her badly.  “If you don’t come down now I’ll run you through girl!”  </p><p>The robed man moves his finger and she sees something blue form in his hand.  A ball of ice.  She watches, transfixed, as it turns into a knife.  Suddenly, the man flings the weapon at the bandit and she hears it strike him.  </p><p>Leytiri listens as the man chokes on his own blood.  ‘That’s what he deserves’, she thinks.  ‘They hurt mom, and everyone.’  </p><p>The bandit makes gurgling noises as he dies but she doesn’t stop looking at the robed man.  The man steps towards her as the bandit takes his last breaths.  The man lifts up his arms towards her.  </p><p>She looks down at the bandit below her.  She knows that this man is a dangerous person but he saved her.  Leytiri uncurls her legs from around the branch and launches herself into the mans arms.  He wraps his arms around her protectively and she wraps her legs around his waist.  He walks in the direction of the temple and she realizes that he’s a mage from the Order, he will get help for my people!  He-</p><p>Leytiri gasps as she sits up in bed.  She looks around and realizes she’s in her bed, at home in the temple.  Laying beside her sound asleep is a lovely dark elf man named Clavicus.  His mother had named him after the Daedric prince Clavicus Vile.  Why the woman would name her only child after a Daedric prince of all things she would never be able to understand, but what she did understand was the man was good in bed if nothing else.  </p><p>Sighing, Leytiri reaches her hand under her pillow and finds the hilt of a dagger.  The day after the attack on her village sixteen years ago she had begged Prentis to take her down to see if there were any survivors. He had told her that no one had survived, and by the time Order mages went to fight off the bandits all of the villagers were dead or barely alive and were being used.  She had insisted upon seeing her mother much to the horror of Prentis.  </p><p>But he had accepted.  </p><p>The leader of the Order disapproved of her going down to the village but she had insisted upon it and he finally relented.  Prentis offered to carry her down the path to the village but she refused.  Instead, he held her hand the entire way.  She could smell the smoke on the air as they walked, he said the smokey smell may last a while since there was so much fire the night before.<br/>
When they finally got to the village she saw smoke rising into the air from the burned buildings.  There were corpses, burned and not, spread out all over the ground.  Among them she had seen her mother.  Naked, face down in the grass.  Prentis took off his robe and laid it over her to hide her decency.  Even at such a young age Leytiri questioned why he had done such a thing, her mother was gone, there was no soul in her body, the body didn’t care if it was naked or not.  </p><p>Prentis had knelt down next to her mother and slid his hand through her beautiful red hair.  Everyone always commented on the fact that mother had red hair, most Altmer have blonde hair, like mine.  </p><p>As Prentis prayed over her mother Leytiri walked over to her little house.  There wasn’t much left, it had burnt to the ground.  But among the mostly burnt furniture and stone walls she found a dagger.   It belonged to her mother, she had kept it for safety she said.  It was a beautiful thing and Leytiri was only allowed to touch it when her mother was around.  The sheath had beautiful blue gems on it, her mother had said they were called sapphires.  </p><p>As a child Leytiri thought they were so beautiful but as a woman she thinks her mother was foolish.  She could have sold that dagger and moved them to Markarth or anywhere else, somewhere safer.  No matter how precious it was to her, she could have made a better life for us.  And she would still be alive today…</p><p>Clavicus groans and stretches his arms and Leytiri lets go of the dagger.  He wraps an arm around her and plants lazy kisses along the side of her neck.  She sighs but tilts her head to the side to let him kiss more of her.  Clavicus rolls on top of her as she closes her eyes, trying hard to block out the memories of that night sixteen years ago.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading!  I'll try to get the next chapter out within the next couple days and Happy Holidays everyone!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Masters of the Order</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.  I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and I'll try to get out the next one tomorrow or so.  I'll see you all next year!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You must never wield a weapon, Leytiri.  Never, not even to save your own life.”</p>
<p>“Why?” </p>
<p>“Magic is a gift, it is natural.  A sword, a knife, a mace, they are violent things, they are not natural, they are made by man.  Your magic is a gift, it comes from you.  If you must kill, do it only to save yourself or another.  And only use magic to do so.”    </p>
<p>“I have no magic.”  </p>
<p>“You do.  You just don’t know how much yet.”  </p>
<p>Sitting on the floor with her legs crossed Leytiri tried to form a ball of fire in her hand but instead she couldn’t help but think about the first conversation she had with the Zyon of the Order.  The Zyon is the leader or head of the Order, who is powerful enough to be a master of all of the schools of magic.  He, or she, is supposed to be one the most powerful mages alive, if not the most.  The Zyon, whose name Leytiri had never even learned in all of her years in the Order, was an old, powerful Nord mage.  </p>
<p>There were six who stood at his side.  A master of Illusion, a master of Restoration, and so forth.  Most of them were powerful in more than one school of magic but they truly created miracles with the ones that they had mastered.  Prentis is the master of Illusion.  He had told her that he knew that she had potential the day he met her, she had seen through his invisibility spell easily.  </p>
<p>Prentis.  The older, about fifty years old, Nord had long been a father to Leytiri.  Before she was old enough to do it herself he would braid her long, blonde hair every morning and unbraid it every evening before her bath, which he would draw for her himself.  He always made sure she was happy, and healthy, as a young girl he would cut up her meat for her in the exact peculiar way she liked it.  She loved duck, and fish, and when he would be forced to leave the Order on a mission he would always bring her back crates and crates of duck and fish and she’d feast on it for weeks.  If there is any love left in her heart, it all belongs to him.  </p>
<p>The master of Conjuration is a mean old Altmer, like her, named Caltar.  He never showed her any preferential treatment though, in fact he whipped her once when she was ten minutes late for class, the old toad.  The master of Alteration is an Imperial man named Aerinth, around Prentis’s age and stern but fair.  The master of Destruction is a Khajiit named DarJi.  Leytiri thinks he is old and wise but honestly she sometimes struggled to judge the ages of Khajiit.  The master of Enchanting and Alchemy is an elderly Nord woman named Arella, a sweet and gentle but powerful mage.  </p>
<p>Then there is the master of Restoration, a cranky, young dark elf named Miraana.  She couldn’t be more than ten years older than Leytiri and had been the last initiate to join the Order before her, ten years before.  Miraana is youngest of the masters of the Order, and only became one because the last master of Restoration died a couple years ago.  After many scrapes Leytiri had to admit that Miraana was extremely skilled at healing spells but she had never liked the dark elf’s attitude.  Miraana was nothing but arrogant towards her.  </p>
<p>Leytiri stopped trying to bring forth a fireball that she knew was never going to come and instead willed a ward into being.  It floated in front of her, shimmery and a silvery blue.  Leytiri couldn’t help a smile, perhaps one day she could give Miraana a run for her money.  </p>
<p>“I thought I told you to work on your destruction spells?”  </p>
<p>Leytiri jerked to her feet, nearly tripping on her robes, and spun around.  Prentis stood before her with a small smile on his bearded face.  Leytiri’s smile widened, she couldn’t help it around him.  “I’m sorry, but you know I’m terrible at that and I’m good at restoration.  Why shouldn’t I work on the things that I’m good at?”  </p>
<p>Prentis sets his gloved hands on his hips and attempts to give her a stern look.  “You never know when you’ll need destruction spells.  You can’t kill someone who is attacking you with a ward, you can’t kill anyone by muffling your footsteps or turning invisible which you aren’t successful at every time.  If you have dreams of being the Zyon one day you need to work at all schools of magic, not just the ones that come easiest to you.”  </p>
<p>Leytiri laughs and tugs on her braid.  “Me?  The Zyon?  No, that’s not for me.  You know what I want.”  </p>
<p>He tilts his head and cocks his eyebrow.  “I’m not sure if I do.  What is it that you want to be Leytiri?”  </p>
<p>“I-”, Leytiri blushes dark red.  “I want to be the master of Illusion one day.  When you’re gone I would very much like to follow your path.”  </p>
<p>Prentis closes his eyes and Leytiri can’t tell if he is pleased with her answer or not.  When he opens them he whispers, “follow my path, huh?”  </p>
<p>Before she can answer he turns his back on her, “follow me.  There’s a new initiate for you to meet.”  </p>
<p>A new initiate?  They hadn’t had one in over a year.  They were much more selective than the college of Winterhold and demanded much more so few people actually bothered to come to the Order instead of the College.  But Leytiri trailed behind Prentis as he led her into the throne room.  </p>
<p>Instead of one throne, like in a castle, there were seven.  The chairs were placed evenly apart in a circle, and all of them were black except for a large, silvery looking one that belonged to the Zyon.  All of the chairs were empty except for the Zyon’s and in front of him stood a tall, strapping Nord.  </p>
<p>Upon first glance Leytiri thought the new kid was handsome.  She had always been short and his large muscular body towered over her small frame, she liked that.  He has short black hair and a fierce black beard.  Indeed, her loins stirred at her first glance, he would certainly be a better bed partner then Clavicus.  </p>
<p>But he finally turned his blue eyes on her and curled his lip up.  Leytiri wasn’t sure if he was disgusted that she is a woman, or an Altmer, maybe both.  Most of the Nords that have come into the Order have treated her badly for being an Altmer, she expects it at this point.  The masters treat her better, perhaps it is their old age or perhaps they merely aren’t bigots, but they do treat her well.  Something tells her that this boy is not like them.  </p>
<p>The Zyon lifts his hooded head at her, “come, Leytiri.”  A man of few words.  </p>
<p>Leytiri stands next to the Nord boy and watches as Prentis leans down to whisper in the Zyon’s ear.  Suddenly Prentis straightens but his forehead is furrowed in the way that Leytiri knows he is angry about something.  Prentis clears his throat, “Leytiri, this young man is Tovarr.  He comes from Riften.  He is a very powerful young mage and will be joining our Order, the masters and the Zyon have just agreed to allow him to join.  The Zyon would like it if you train him in Illusion magic.”  </p>
<p>She couldn’t believe her ears.  She had never been asked to train anyone before!  She had learned much here but she had never taught.  “Thank you Zyon, thank you Prentis.   But why don’t you teach him yourself Prentis?  We both know that you’re far better than me with Illusion spells.”  </p>
<p>Prentis steps towards her and puts a hand on her shoulder and the other on Tovarr’s.  “Well, you said that you want to follow my path.  One day you very well may be teaching all the new initiates your magic.  Perhaps this is a good start.”  He squeezes her shoulder.  </p>
<p>Giddy, but trying hard to suppress her glee, Leytiri smiles slightly and nods first as Prentis and then at the Zyon.  “I will do as you command.  I will train Tovarr.”  </p>
<p>Out of the corner of her eye she can see Tovarr wince but she doesn’t let that bother her.  She, Leytiri, has been given a chance to show how well her magic is.  She won’t let down Prentis, or the Zyon.  She won’t.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Vow of the Order</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey guys!  I hope you all enjoy this chapter.  </p>
<p>Warnings for this chapter include strong language, violence, and Rape/Non-Con.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tovarr sat on his knees on the floor of the temple, eyes shut, teeth gritted.  Leytiri stood opposite him, her Familiar wolf laid on the ground next to her.  She had always only been half decent at Conjuration magic, and it was a struggle to keep her Familiar going, especially when she knew that it might take a miracle for Tovarr to master the spell Fury, one of the simplest Illusion spells there is.  </p>
<p>At this point, Leytiri doesn’t expect much of the man.  She had taken him from the temple hunting and she told him to use Clairvoyance to find the deer they were searching for.  Tovarr had only been able to keep up the spell for a few seconds at a time and it took all of his concentration to hold onto it.  Eventually she used her own spell to find the deer before it was lost.  </p>
<p>Now, she was trying to get him to turn her own Familiar against her.  She had remembered the joy that filled her when she had turned Prentis’s Familiar on him and had it growl at him but not attack him.  She had hoped that she could make Tovarr feel that joy but so far the most that had happened was a twitch of her Familiars ear.  </p>
<p>Tovarr grunts loudly and Leytiri looks down at her Familiar, a small wolf, who twitches its ear again but nothing else.  Leytiri sighs and her Familiar disappears.  </p>
<p>“You broke my fucking concentration!”  Tovarr leaps to his feet and points a finger at her angrily.  “Conjure your fucking Familiar again, now.”  </p>
<p>Surprised at his outburst, Leytiri mops her brow free of sweat while she tries to think of a way to deescalate the situation.  They had been at it for hours!  Finally she says, “I’m sorry I broke your concentration.  But I can’t re-conjure my Familiar, I’m all tapped out magic wise right now.”  </p>
<p>He narrows his eyes at her, “aren’t you people supposed to be the most powerful mages in the world?  How are you so fucking weak you can’t even conjure a Familiar?”  </p>
<p>Leytiri longs to snap back at him but she knows Prentis and the Zyon would frown upon that.  She was the teacher, he was her initiate right now, she must act like a teacher.  She clears her throat and takes a deep breath before responding to him, “the Zyon and the masters are some of the most powerful mages in Skyrim but unfortunately I am just an initiate like you are.  I’m also very skilled with Illusion and Restoration spells, but I have difficulty with Conjuration magic.  Why don’t we try to continue with your other Illusion spells?”    </p>
<p>Tovarr grunts and kneels down again without a reply.  Leytiri sighs softly and kneels in front of him.  “Okay, let’s try Clairvoyance again.  I know it’s a bit of a boring spell but it is pretty easy to use and gives you good practice for more powerful spells.” </p>
<p>Again Tovarr narrows his eyes at her.  “To hell with that.  Teach me how to turn myself invisible, I’ve always wanted to do that.”  </p>
<p>Suppressing another sigh Leytiri shakes her head.  “I’m sorry but that isn’t possible.  Only very powerful mages in Illusion magic can do the invisibility spell.  I’ve been practicing nearly my entire life and I still have trouble with that spell.  If you don’t want to do clairvoyance we can work on something else for now but there’s no way you will be able to turn yourself invisible without much more practice.”  </p>
<p>‘If you’ll ever be able to do it at all’, Leytiri thinks bitterly.  </p>
<p>Tovarr’s eyes flash angrily.  “Just teach me how to do it now, Elf.  You and I both know I have more magic then you could ever have, you’re just jealous of my power!”  </p>
<p>Leytiri grits her teeth.  “Don’t call me Elf.  You can call me Leytiri, or Ley-Ley if you want, or even Initiate.  I am no different then you just because I am an Altmer and you are a Nord, I don’t run around calling you ‘Nord’.  And you and I both know your magic is subpar at best.”  </p>
<p>She watches as his hands curl into fists.  Oh, how she hopes he throws a punch!  Violence is forbidden in the Order and she is dying to get his ass kicked out now.  </p>
<p>“Enough, children.”  </p>
<p>Leytiri immediately stands and bows her head towards the Zyon, Tovarr follows at a much slower pace and Leytiri notices out of the corner of her eye that the fool doesn’t bow his head.  </p>
<p>The Zyon tents his fingers together in front of him and a Familiar appears beside him.  “Young Tovarr, there are no elves here, there are no Nords, there are no Imperials, there are no Khajiit, there are no Argonians, nor Bretons.  There are only mages of the Order of the Seven.  Whatever hate you have in your heart for people that look like Leytiri you must remove from yourself.  You are no better or worse than her.”  </p>
<p>The Zyon turns towards Leytiri and she bows her head lower.  “Leytiri, I personally accepted Tovarr into our Order, if his magic was subpar he would not be here.  Do you disagree with the decisions that I make for our Order?”</p>
<p>Leytiri shakes her head, her face turning bright pink.  She had never heard him speak so much in all her time here, it was incredibly embarrassing that he was speaking so much to chastise her.  </p>
<p>He takes a step towards her and uses a finger to lift her chin until she has to look into his eyes, she has a childish urge to close hers.  “I’m sorry, Zyon.  I will try to be better.”  </p>
<p>The Zyon nods.  “That is all I ask.  You are tired, and are excused.  Go to your quarters and rest, I will train with young Tovarr.”  </p>
<p>Without a word Leytiri heads for her room and when she gets there angry tears slide down her cheeks.  Fucking Tovarr!  She gets her first initiate to teach and she gets that asshole.  She rips off her robes and pulls off her pants leaving herself only in a shirt and underwear.  </p>
<p>Leytiri slides between her sheets but before she puts her head down she pushes her hand under her pillow and slides her finger along the sheath of her mothers dagger.  She really should have gotten rid of it, years ago.  Upon finding out that the Order was forbidden to use weapons she should have chucked it.  But she couldn’t, it was the last thing she had of her mother.  </p>
<p>Laying her head down, Leytiri lets go of the dagger.  Her eyes close, and one last tear falls onto her pillow.  Yes, some sleep would do her good, in the morning she would try again and make the Zyon happy.  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hours later, or perhaps only minutes, Leytiri jerks awake and immediately realizes something is wrong.  There is a heavy weight on top of her and her face is pressed down into her pillow.  </p>
<p>Leytiri jerks harder, trying to throw the thing on top of her off.  The thing laughs, a deep and cruel chuckle.  Suddenly she wildly bucks and kicks and punches as well as she can with her body face down but the man laughs a little louder and holds her down.  </p>
<p>“You’ve got some fight in you, Ley-Ley”.  </p>
<p>She freezes, god no.  Tovarr!  “Get off me, you bastard.  Violence isn’t allowed, if you do this they’ll kick you out.”  </p>
<p>Tovarr’s beard brushes against her cheek and she shivers as he slides his lips and tongue down her neck.  “They won’t kick me out Ley-Ley.  Even if I couldn’t do any magic at all they wouldn’t kick me out.  You’re stuck with me.”  </p>
<p>One of his hands slides down her back to her underwear and he hooks one finger into the material.  Leytiri tries to buck him off of her again but she realizes it’s futile, he’s got a foot on her at least and at least 80 pounds heavier.  She sobs as he pulls her underwear halfway down her legs.  </p>
<p>“Oh Ley-Ley, you High Elves really are whores.  What kind of good, respectful girl sleeps half naked?” </p>
<p>Leytiri sobs.  “Don’t call me Ley-Ley.”  She can hear her mothers voice in her head, Ley-Ley was the last thing she said to her…<br/>Tovarr’s hard, callused hands slide up and down her thighs before one of them comes down and smacks her buttocks.  After the slap he strokes where he slapped her, Leytiri sobs again as her loins stirred and wetness pooled onto her sheets.  </p>
<p>He laughs again.  “I knew you were a whore.  You liked that didn’t you?  You like a little bit of pain huh, so I’ll give it to you.”  </p>
<p>Leytiri tries to speak but she chokes on her saliva and he slaps her buttocks again and again, each time stroking the hurt skin sensually.  Finally Tovarr slides his fingers to her privates and pushes a finger inside of her.  Leytiri tries to hit him but he smacks her hands away.    </p>
<p>Tovarr pumps first one finger, then two, and finally three in and out of her while he loosens his belt with his other hand.  He crooks one of his fingers inside of her and suddenly her thighs tremble, she tilts her head back and lets out a long moan, and she orgasms uncontrollably on his fingers.</p>
<p>He laughs again.  “See?  You know you want it.”  He pulls his fingers out of her and positions himself at her entrance.  </p>
<p>Leytiri tries to concentrate on her hand and on her magic as he thrusts inside of her.  As he grunts and the sounds of skin slapping against skin fills the room she thinks only of fire and tries to will a fireball into her hand.  </p>
<p>She can feel the magic inside of her burning but no fire fills her hand, not even the slightest flicker.  Tears slide down her cheeks and she tries harder to to bring forth her fire but it stubbornly doesn’t.  </p>
<p>Tovarr pulls her hips up and thrusts into her harder, making her cry out.  Gods please let one of the masters hear us!  But just as she thinks about screaming for Prentis Tovarr clamps his hand down upon her mouth, silencing her.  </p>
<p>Resigned to it, Leytiri tries to clear her mind and just hope that he won’t hurt her more after it is over.  Suddenly, Leytiri can feel something hard underneath her pillow.  The dagger…</p>
<p>Leytiri slowly slides her left hand under her pillow and unsheathes the dagger as quietly as she can.  Tovarr’s hips begin moving erratically, she knows he is close.  Feigning pleasure, Leytiri pushes herself back against him, trying to position herself so that she won’t miss when she attacks.  She only has one chance…</p>
<p>Tovarr pulls her to her knees and pumps in and out of her harder and quicker while Leytiri tightens her grip on the dagger.  Suddenly Tovarr arches his back and Leytiri nearly gags as he spills himself inside of her.  She chances a look behind her and realizes his eyes are closed in pleasure.  One chance!</p>
<p>Leytiri swings the dagger and slits Tovarr clean across the throat.  His eyes open in horror and blood pours out of his neck onto her.  Suddenly he grabs her by the back of the neck and slams her head down into her pillow.  She tries to fight against the pressure on her neck but even with blood pouring out of him and death imminent he is still just too strong.  </p>
<p>Panicking, and unable to breath, Leytiri forces her knees into the mattress and shoves with all of her might.  Finally his hand slides from her head and she pushes him off of her.  His body slides down to the floor and Leytiri gasps for air, trying to ignore the ocean of blood covering her and her bed.  </p>
<p>Hurried footsteps in the hall race towards her room and Leytiri closes her eyes.  They would have to forgive her for this, she had to save herself!  They have to forgive her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Leytiri's Trial</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello all!  I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'll try to have the next one out tomorrow or the next day.  The next chapter will be the last of the backstory chapters or prologue so to speak.  Chapter 7 will begin in Helgen when Leytiri starts her journey as the dragonborn.  I will be playing the game as I write the story so how fast I write will depend on how fast I play through the story.  I will be doing the main quest, my own questline involving the Order of the Seven, and then the Companions/dark brotherhood/Thieves guild questlines.  After those are done I may be open to doing some of the side quests and may take requests if anyone would like to make one.  </p><p>Anyways, I hope you all enjoy and I'll be getting out the next chapter soon.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Prentis sits staring into the fire flickering merrily in the Zyon’s bed quarters, a cup of ale in his hand.  His eyes ached from lack of sleep, his bones felt hundreds of years old rather than the fifty years he had lived.  Truth be told, he was quite positive he may never sleep again.  Earlier that evening he had heard muffled cries coming from Leytiri’s room and fearing for her safety he had rushed to her aid.  What he found had shocked him to his core.  </p><p>Leytiri laid in the middle of her bed, sobbing, her shirt rolled up and barely covering her breasts while the rest of her was bare.  Her flawless, golden colored skin was soaked in crimson red blood.  The new initiate, Tovarr, lay face-down and lifeless beside her bed.  The young man’s pants were around his knees.  Leytiri had a vice like grip on a dagger with sapphire colored jewels on the hilt.  </p><p>Upon realizing that Prentis was in the room Leytiri had launched herself into his arms and he had held her until all of her tears dried.  When he last looked upon her mother he gave her an unspoken promise, that he would protect Leytiri.  He failed.  He didn’t protect her from this arrogant piece of filth.  And now, now she would suffer for it.  </p><p>When Prentis aw the body his initial thought was how in the hell was he going to be able to hide it?  He couldn’t carry it through the temple, knowing that the other masters, the Zyon, and initiates were all up at varying hours and there was no guarantee that one of them wouldn’t catch him.  He couldn’t burn it, that was dangerous in Leytiri’s tiny bed quarters and he wasn’t sure his fire could get hot enough to remove all of Tovarr.  </p><p>Unfortunately he didn’t have long to think about getting rid of the body before Leytiri’s sobs attracted more people to her room.  Masters forced gasping and screaming initiates back to their rooms and the Zyon had stood, stony faced and silent, staring at Tovarr’s body.  Soon enough, everyone in the Order knew that Tovarr had died and Leytiri, still gripping her dagger, had killed him.  </p><p>The day every person entered the temple to try to join the Order were told that they, for the rest of their lives, would be forbidden to use a weapon against another person again.  If they used a sword, a dagger, a mace, anything other than their magic then they would be removed from the Order.  And violence against other members of the Order was strictly forbidden, in all circumstances.  </p><p>Had Leytiri after the rape ran to get him and told him of the rape then Tovarr would have been removed from the Order.  Instead she had killed him, and now she would be punished for it.  She would be removed from the Order, and none of them would ever be permitted to speak to her again.  Leytiri had nothing but them, she had no money, nothing.  How could she survive with nothing and no one to support her?  </p><p>Prentis had briefly considered running.  Just grabbing her and taking off.  He had seen the world, he had seen Skyrim, he could take care of her out there, he could protect her out there better then he did here.  But cowardice had kept him here, or maybe hope.  Maybe the Zyon would forgive her for this, it had been perfectly clear to him the moment he ran into that room what had happened.  If Leytiri had attacked him with a spell and killed him then they wouldn’t even blink an eye.  They’d be annoyed with her, possibly, for killing such an important initiate.  But they would forgive.  </p><p>Gods, if only Leytiri had killed Tovarr with magic.  </p><p>Perhaps it was pride, his, that had told him to teach her Illusion magic above all the others.  He had secretly hoped that the day he died she would succeed him as the master of Illusion and, maybe, one day become the Zyon herself.  She had always been abysmal at Destruction spells, she could barely bring forth the smallest ball of flame and holding onto it had taken all of her concentration.  Now he wished that he had told her to stop practicing her Illusion and Restoration spells and worked on Destruction instead.  </p><p>It would have saved her the heartbreak he knew she was about to face.  He swallows hard, he didn’t know if he could bear it.  </p><p>Footsteps behind him have his head turning, standing in the doorway is a young Dark Elf boy.  Clavicus.  The boy tries to hide the stricken look on his face but he isn’t successful.  Prentis knows that he and Leytiri had been intimate, and it must torture the boy to know what happened to Leytiri right before she killed Tovarr.  </p><p>Clavicus clears his throat.  “Master, the other-the other masters are ready to decide on-on Leytiri’s fate.”  </p><p>Prentis nods and listens as the boy steps from the room.  He sighs and takes a large gulp of his ale before standing and making his way to the throne room.  Upon entering he can see each of the thrones are filled, save for his seat.  Sitting on the floor in the middle of the thrones is Leytiri, her robes on but hood down.  Her fear filled golden eyes light up when she sees him and he gives her a small smile, perhaps her last kindness from the Order.  </p><p>The Zyon holds his hand out towards Prentis’s throne and he takes it.  All of the masters are deathly silent and a couple of them are glaring at Leytiri from underneath their hoods.  Leytiri shudders and it looks to Prentis like she is trying to hold back more tears.  </p><p>The Zyon tents his fingers together and looks around at all of the masters.  “It is time to determine the fate of young Leytiri.  In ordinary circumstances she would have been immediately cast out of the Order upon discovering the violent act she committed.  But Prentis believes that Leytiri was assaulted by Tovarr and only acted in self defense.”</p><p>Miraana snorts.  “How do we know that it was an assault?  What evidence is there that she was raped?  We could just as easily come to the conclusion that they had a sexual encounter and, angered by what happened last night, she killed him.  Everyone here knows the boy was prejudiced against Elves, perhaps Leytiri decided to do something about it.”  </p><p>Leytiri gasps.  “That’s not true!  I woke up and he was on top of me!”  </p><p>Caltar raises one of his hands.  “Silence, Leytiri.  We have heard your testimony, you know you are not to speak during judgement.”  He looks at Miraana.  “You heard the girls sobs and screams.  Leytiri is young, and arrogant on occasion, but I have known her since she was four years old and what I do know is that she is no liar.  Why would she risk her home and her life as it is on a lie?”</p><p>Miraana snorts again but she does not respond.  DarJi on the other hand does speak.  “If the girl had only used a spell she would be allowed to stay.  Our vows are clear, the day we join the Order we swear never to lift a weapon against another even to save our own lives.  Leytiri broke her vow.  Had she used magic to kill him we would not be speaking here now, it would be done.  What harm was there in waiting to tell one of us masters about the rape?  I would have gladly set the shit stain of a man on fire myself if Leytiri could not do it herself.”</p><p>Arella tilts her head in DarJi’s direction.  “DarJi!  We do not kill whomever we want on a whim.  We protect those who can not protect themselves, we only kill with magic to save lives, we do not set people on fire for laughs.  The problem right now is the weapon used.  The blade is man made and arrogant, magic is a gift from the gods.  Perhaps Tovarr deserved to die, but not with a blade and by one of our hands, not Leytiri’s.”  </p><p>Leytiri sobs and her body starts to shake.  Prentis wants nothing more than to take her into his arms but he knows the other masters would frown upon that.  Caltar raises his hand again to silence her but Arella gives him a look that silences him.  She looks back at Leytiri.  “You must think us cruel, child.  I do believe the boy raped you, I do believe you when you say you tried to draw forth your magic and failed, and I do believe you when you say you were frightened and didn’t know what else to do.  I do not know the outcome of your judgement, you very well may be allowed to stay, but I must wonder if you would choose violence again if you were forced to choose.”  </p><p>Prentis clears his throat and Arella nods at him to speak.  “Forgive me, Arella.  Leytiri has proven to be nothing less than a devout follower of our Order.  She has never chosen violence.  How many people have you killed?  Or DarJi?  Or Caltar?  Or Miraana or Aerinth?  Or for gods sake, the Zyon?  I have killed dozens, maybe even hundreds all in the name of the Order of the Seven.  So have you, all of you.  I used magic every time and I hope you all did too but I have never been raped, I have never been in that situation and I don’t know if I could have drawn out my magic if I had been assaulted.  I am asking only for compassion for a young girl who was frightened.” </p><p>Aerinth leans forward in his seat and looks down at Leytiri.  “Tell us the truth, girl.  How long have you had the dagger?”</p><p>Prentis closes his eyes and he can suddenly hear his heart pounding in his ears.  He knew that she had taken it from her home down in the village the day after the bandit raid.  He knew that he should have stopped her, but he wanted her to have something that belonged to her mother.  He should have taken it and gotten rid of it…</p><p>Leytiri curls her hands into fists in her lap and Prentis watches as two more tears slide down her cheeks.  “Since I was four, master.  It belonged to my mother, I had no intention of using it I just wanted something that…”  She trails off.  </p><p>All of the masters except Prentis were staring at each other in horror.  She had kept a weapon, held it, hid it, for sixteen years.  Prentis was certain that no words would get them to forgive her now.  </p><p>The Zyon lifts one hand and everyone goes silent.  “We shall vote now.  If Leytiri is exiled she will immediately leave the Order.  She will be disrobed, she will receive fifty Septims, a bag of food and a skin of water and then she will be on her own.  She shall never be allowed to enter this temple again.  If she is forgiven, she can stay if she chooses.  She is not to be treated any differently then she was yesterday.  Aerinth, if you would please start the vote.”</p><p>Aerinth rises and glares down at Leytiri who curls in on herself, trying to avoid his gaze.  “Exile.”  </p><p>Miraana rises next and smirks down at Leytiri.  “Exile.”  </p><p>Caltar stands and Prentis can see that his hands are curled into fists.  “Innocent.  She is young, and missed her mother.”  </p><p>DarJi rises to his feet next and looks down at Leytiri with a sad expression.  “Had you not had the blade for these past sixteen years I may have called you innocent, but the fact that you kept it despite knowing what that would mean for us, I must say Exile.”  </p><p>Arella elegantly rises and clasps her hands together almost as if in prayer.  “Innocent, she is still just a girl.”  </p><p>Prentis counts three votes for exile and two for her innocence.  Surely the Zyon would vote with him and she’d be allowed to stay!  Prentis rises and he tries to keep the relief out of his voice when he says, “Innocent.”  </p><p>With all of the masters standing over her Leytiri shrinks in upon herself, trying to make herself as small as possible.  Prentis tries not to smile, knowing that the Zyon would do the right thing and forgive her.  She really is still just a child compared to all of them, she will learn!</p><p>The Zyon slowly rises to his feet and bows his head.  Each of the masters wait with baited breath, Prentis wishes that he would just get it over with and put Leytiri out of her misery.  He wanted to get her back to her room and into a fresh pair of clothes.  And maybe, just maybe, get her the hell out of there.  They could go anywhere else, if that’s what she wanted.  </p><p>Finally the Zyon lifts his head and in a soft voice barely above a whisper he says, “Exile.”  </p><p>Leytiri and Prentis both jerk their heads in union at the Zyon and Leytiri shouts out, “no!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. A Moments Peace</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings for this chapter are some strong language but it's not really that bad.  </p><p>This is the last of the prologue chapters, next chapter will begin in Helgen and I will begin my next playthrough of Skyrim with Leytiri as my character.  I haven't figured out yet how to show you guys a picture of Leytiri but I will try to figure it out before I write the next story but if I can't I will give you all a description of her instead.  I hope you all enjoy this chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leytiri sat in an inn called Dead Man’s Drink in Falkreath.  Sitting in front of her is a bowl of cabbage potato soup, the cheapest soup she could afford, and a loaf of bread.  The meal, her largest in four days, cost seven septims.  The Zyon had only given her fifty, and she wasted ten of it by getting a room at the Dead Man’s Drink last night.  But after sleeping in barns or out in the open for the past few nights Leytiri needed a bed to sleep in at least for one night.  </p><p>The cabbage was hard for her to choke down, she always hated the stuff, but the soup was hot and she was starving.  The Zyon had also given her water and food but that hadn’t lasted long.  Eventually she was forced to collect water from streams and though she had managed to hunt down a rabbit she had no idea how to skin it and wasn’t able to eat it.  </p><p>Leytiri knew that there was no place for her in Skyrim anymore, her family was dead, her villagers were dead, and now she was no longer part of the Order.  After reaching Falkreath she had come to a decision, she would travel to Cyrodiil where she would try to find a job at an alchemy shop or something.  She had always been good with making potions.  It sounded like a boring life to her but after what happened and the shame she felt about what she did perhaps what she needed was a boring life.  </p><p>Briefly, she had thought about going to the Summerset Isles instead of Cyrodiil.  But she was afraid about how many septims it would take to book passage and she felt like she wouldn’t be accepted there.  She doesn’t worship any of their gods, she doesn’t care about their traditions, and she couldn’t even speak their language.  In fact, Leytiri knew next to nothing about being an Altmer at all.  Her first few years she had only ever encountered one other Altmer, her mother, and only a small handful in the Order afterwards.  </p><p>Last night when she got to Falkreath she had asked around about jobs.  Someone had suggested that she sell flowers, if she picked good ones they could sell for a septim a piece.  Another person had suggested chopping wood, she could get five septims for every piece of wood she cuts but Leytiri had never been very strong physically and doubted she could chop very many pieces of wood before she’d be forced to give up.  </p><p>The lady at the alchemy shop couldn’t afford to hire her but had offered to let her use the alchemy lab and sell potions.  Leytiri could spend a little bit of her money on ingredients or find some while scavenging around Falkreath.  It may take awhile, but eventually she should be able to make enough to get to Cyrodiil and find a place to live there.  </p><p>She was pretty good at alchemy, Arella had always seemed very proud of her potions.  She could make potions and sell them, and get the hell out of Skyrim.  If she made enough money maybe she could set up her very own alchemy shop, grow old, and never, ever, lift another weapon again.  Tovarr deserved what he got but so did she, she swore vows and she broke them.  </p><p>Leytiri sighs and gulps the last of the soup and stands up to take the bowl to the bar.  She might as well get started.  The sooner she looked for ingredients or bought them the sooner she could get out of Skyrim.  </p><p>As she steps out of the inn she turns in the direction of the cemetery.  Arella had always told her when in need for ingredients and an alchemy shop is no where near then a cemetery is a good place to go to look.  Leytiri heads down the hill to the cemetery and her eyes immediately land on a cluster of Nightshade.  She smiles, there are a ton of ingredients she could mix with Nightshade!  She quickly picks all of the flowers, ten of them in all.  </p><p>Some bleeding crown sit just a few feet from her so she starts picking those as well.  She could mix the two of them together, or sell the bleeding crown, they’re quite valuable by themselves.  Pleased with herself, Leytiri starts back up the hill towards the alchemy shop.  She knew that Nightshade is worth roughly seven or eight septims and bleeding crown could be sold for around ten.  If she sold all ten Nightshade she was looking at in-between seventy and eighty septims from them alone, and the bleeding crown would put her over a hundred!  </p><p>It had taken her less than five minutes to get enough ingredients for over a hundred septims.  Maybe she could get even more money, if she could create a few really good potions from the ingredients.  Maybe she should scour Falkreath for all the ingredients she could find.  And perhaps she could go outside the town and try to find more out there.  Leytiri smiled wider, she would get a room at the inn tonight as well.  </p><p>Oh, she couldn’t help the spring in her step.  Tonight she’ll splurge a little bit more of her money and tomorrow she’ll hunt from dawn til dusk for ingredients.  She won’t stop until her bag is brimming with flowers, fungi, and whatever else she could find.  But tonight, tonight she will eat venison stew, butter with her bread, and maybe even a sweet roll for dessert.  Perhaps even a bottle of spiced wine.  </p><p>Leytiri rounds the corner and stops dead in her tracks.  Standing in the doorway of Grave Concoctions is the woman who runs the place, and Arella.  Two initiates stand next to them, Leytiri is surprised to see that one of them is Clavicus.  The flowers and fungi fall from Leytiri’s hands and she presses herself against the closest building, trying to blend in with the shadows.  The owner of the shop nods her head and Leytiri can see that Arella looks displeased with whatever they’re talking about.  </p><p>The owner of the shop motions for Arella to enter the building, but Clavicus and the other initiate stay outside.  Leytiri kneels down and shoves the flowers and fungi back into her bag as quickly as she can.  She was getting the hell out of here, out of Falkreath, out of fucking Skyrim itself if she had to!</p><p>Edging around the building in the direction of the entrance to the town, Leytiri pulls her hood up over her head.  Prentis had given her a cloak with a hood when she left the day of her exile for which she was eternally grateful for.  If she kept her head down, and stayed out of their sight she should be able to leave town.  Maybe she’d head for Riften, or head north for Whiterun.  She could make money in either place, and eventually make enough to hire a carriage ride out of Skyrim.  </p><p>She walks slowly towards the entrance of town, trying not to look suspicious.  Thirty feet… twenty… almost…</p><p>“Leytiri?”  </p><p>Clavicus’s voice, always so soft and gentle towards her, was filled with confusion, and fear.  Instead of answering him Leytiri dashes for the exit, and Clavicus shouts, “Leytiri!  Stop!”  </p><p>She can hear the guards yell for her to stop, she can hear Clavicus shout for Arella, and the last voice she hears as she disappears into the trees is Arella’s.  She yells two words, “Leytiri, please!”  </p><p>But she ignores all of the voices.  She doesn’t listen to the guards or Clavicus, and certainly not Arella.  Leytiri, who had always been swift on her feet, outpaced all of them and it didn’t take long before the shouts died away and the only thing she could hear was her labored breath, her swift footfalls, and her beating heart.  She would run until she couldn’t anymore.  And then she would walk.  And finally she would crawl if she had to.  She would leave Skyrim today if it was the last thing she would do.  </p><p>Her feet slow until she stops.  She can’t hear anyone behind her, she has no idea how far she is from Falkreath, nor how far she is to the border.  But she would walk south until she couldn’t walk anymore.  </p><p>A branch snaps behind her but before she can start running again a blow to the back of her head sends her sprawling to the ground.  Her eyes blur and as she looks up she can see two men wearing armor walking towards her.  Leytiri closes her eyes and begins to lose consciousness as her head hits the ground.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Executions at Helgen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi guys!  This chapter was really fun to write though the batteries in my controller may not agree, perhaps it is time to think about a wire for my controller.  </p><p>So Leytiri's story in Helgen started today.  Leytiri is twenty years old.  She is a High Elf/Altmer on her mothers side, she does not know what race her father is.  She is very short for a High Elf and only stands at just over five feet tall.  She has light golden colored skin and dark gold eyes.  She has blonde hair that she likes to pull back into braids.  She is petite.  She prefers to wear robes as that is what she is used to but sometimes she will wear light armor as the game gets tougher.  </p><p>I hope you all enjoy Leytiri's journey, it truly starts now.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The cart beneath her shakes and Leytiri tries to grip her head but realizes her hands are bound.  She tries to suppress a groan but it comes out anyways.  A blonde man in front of her looks over at her and says, “hey, you.  You’re finally awake.  You were trying to cross the border, right?”</p><p>Leytiri nods but doesn’t say anything.  The man continues.  “Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us.”  He nods at the man beside Leytiri, the man has a gag in his mouth.  “And that thief over there.”  </p><p>Sitting next to the blonde man a brown haired one speaks up.  “Damn you Stormcloaks.  Skyrim was fine until you came along! Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn’t been looking for you I’d have stolen that horse and been halfway to Hammerfell.”  He looks at Leytiri.  “You there, girl, we shouldn’t be here.  They want the Stormcloaks, not us.”  </p><p>The blonde mans lips twitch and Leytiri suspects he’s trying to hide a smile.  “We’re all brothers and sisters in binds now.”  </p><p>“Shut up back there!”  The driver throws a look over his shoulder at them.  </p><p>The brown haired man looks at the person beside Leytiri.  “What’s wrong with him?”</p><p>Agitated, the blonde fires back, “watch your tongue!  You’re speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak.  He’s the true High King.”  </p><p>The brown haired man’s eyes widen.  “Ulfric? The Jarl of Windhelm? You’re the leader of the rebellion... if they’ve captured you…”  His voice starts to sound panicked.  “Oh gods, where are they taking us?”</p><p>Leytiri wants to say that they are probably going to their deaths, but she doesn’t.  She doesn’t have to, the blonde does it for her.  “I don’t know where we’re going, but Sovngarde awaits.”  She briefly closes her eyes, yes, death awaits them.  </p><p>She watches the path ahead, trying to ignore them as the men talk about home.  Ahead of them, the gates to some sort of town opens.  She can hear a man call out to a general Tullius, who responds back.  The brown haired man starts calling out to the gods, asking them to help.  Leytiri knows that no help is coming for them.  She knows that she is about to lose her head, for the sole crime of trying to run from Skyrim.  </p><p>The blonde man looks at a man wearing armor and angrily says, “Look at him! General Tullius. And it looks like the Thalmor are with him. Damn elves, I bet they had something to do with this.”  Leytiri bristles but doesn’t say anything.  Prentis had gone to Windhelm on a mission once and she had begged him to take her with him.  He had replied, sadly, that she would not be accepted there because she was an elf.  Other initiates had treated her unfairly before because of her race, but they had never treated her the way Prentis described the way the people of Windhelm would treat her.  </p><p>Her people… stuck in slums and just trying hard as they could to survive in a world where no one wants them…</p><p>The blonde man looks around at all the buildings, not a town but more a fortress or prison maybe.  “This is Helgen... I used to be sweet on a girl from here. I wonder if Velod is still making that mead with juniper berries mixed in…”  He smiles, a soft, smile.  “Funny, when I was a boy Imperial walls and towers used to make me feel so safe.”  </p><p>A boy sitting on a porch asks his father who they were and his father tells him to go inside.  Leytiri is glad that the boy is going in, he doesn’t need to see what is about to happen.  A soldier, a woman, steps up to one of the carts and demands that the prisoners get out of the carts.  </p><p>The brown haired man looks around.  “Why are we stopping?”  </p><p>Leytiri does not have the heart to tell him, but it seems the blonde man does.  “Why do you think?  It’s the end of the line.”  He looks at Leytiri.  “Let’s go, we should not keep the gods waiting.”  </p><p>She nods and stands, the other three do as well.  The brown haired man cries out, “we aren’t rebels, please!”  </p><p>The blonde man, behind Leytiri, tells the man to face his death with courage.  The female soldier looks at all of them with disgust on her face.  “Step towards the block when we call your names, one at a time!”  </p><p>The blonde man sighs and says something but she can not hear.  She is too busy staring at the block, a man stands beside it.  Within a few minutes, she would be dead.  She would only get to see twenty years in this world.  </p><p>A male soldier calls out, “Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm.”  </p><p>The blonde man tells Ulfric that it had been an honor, before he too is called to the block.  Ralof, the mans name is.  Leytiri should have asked him, it might have been more polite than to call him the blonde man.  Leytiri watches the two of them walk to the block, goodbye, Ralof and Ulfric…</p><p>The male soldier looks down at his list again and looks at the brown haired man.  “Lokir of Rorikstead.”  </p><p>Lokir, shaking, shouts, “no!  I am not a rebel!  You can’t do this!”  Leytiri watches as the man makes a dash back towards the gates.  Several people yell for him to stop and she watches, horrified, as one of them shouts out the word, “archers”.  </p><p>She watches Lokir fall to the ground, and not get up again.  </p><p>The female soldier glares at her and the rest of the prisoners.  “Anyone else gonna run?”  </p><p>The soldier beside her takes a step towards Leytiri.  “Wait.  Who are you?”</p><p>Frightened, but trying to hide it, Leytiri takes a step towards the soldier.  “My name is Leytiri.”  </p><p>The soldier looks down at his list again.  “You are not with the Thalmor Embassy are you, High Elf?”  Leytiri shakes her head. He looks up at her again before down at the list.  “No, that can not be right…”  </p><p>He finally looks up from the list and at the female soldier. “Captain?  She’s not on the list, what should we do?”  </p><p>She takes one look at Leytiri and points at the block.  “Forget the list, she goes to the block.”  </p><p>The male soldier nods and looks back at Leytiri.  “I am sorry.  I will make sure to have your remains sent to Summerset Isles.  Follow the captain prisoner.”  </p><p>Leytiri follows the captain towards the block and thinks about her remains.  She had never had a home other than the Order and her village.  She had always assumed her body would be burned like the rest of the Order before her.  But she wouldn’t say that to the soldiers.  They could do with her body whatever they pleased, she could find rest in the Summerset Isles if need be.  </p><p>The commander, Tullius she assumes, tells Ulfric that he started this war and plunged Skyrim into chaos, and that the Empire would restore peace.  Leytiri only half listens, she had never cared about the war and thought both sides had merit.  </p><p>Suddenly, a roar in the sky sounds and Leytiri looks up.  She can’t see anything in the clouds but several of the soldiers look around wildly for the noise.  She keeps her eyes to the sky as the first Stormcloak soldiers steps up to the block and she doesn’t react as she hears the swing of the ax and the blow that takes the mans life.  </p><p>Ralof sighs.  “As fearless in death, as he was in life…”  </p><p>“Next.  The High Elf!”  But as soon as the captain calls for her to step forward another roar fills the air.  Leytiri looks up to the sky again, frightened, as a hand on her back pushes her forward.  </p><p>They don’t even remove the body of the Stormcloak soldier so Leytiri kneels to the ground, trying to avoid looking at the headless man.  With her neck perched painfully on the block she looks up at her executioner.  She tries to hide her fear, but she doesn’t know how successful she is.  She could see several Thalmor in the crowd and she tried to meet several of their eyes, not to try to get them to save her, but for kinship.  All of them looked away from her, not able to grant her even a single look.  A smile.  Anything.  She was just one more dead High Elf.  </p><p>As the executioner starts to pull back the ax, in the sky she can see a large black dragon!  The dragon lands on a tower in front of her and starts… shouting at everyone.  Suddenly the the buildings start exploding and fire reigns down upon them.  </p><p>Leytiri pulls herself to her fight and stares up at the dragon, never this scared in her life.  “Hey!  High Elf!”  Leytiri looks around and sees Ralof.  He motions towards her.  “The gods will never give us another chance!  Come on!”  </p><p>She doesn’t have to think twice and follows Ralof into a building where other Stormcloak soldiers are, including Ulfric.  Ralof uses a blade to undo his bindings and then Leytiri’s before moving onto Ulfric.  </p><p>One of the soldiers looks at Ulfric.  “Jarl, could the legends be true?”</p><p>Ulfric yanks the gag out of his mouth.  “Legends don’t burn down villages.” The dragon roars again and Ulfric stares up towards the ceiling.  “We need to move!”</p><p>Ralof looks at Leytiri.  “Let’s go up!”  </p><p>Leytiri follows Ralof up the stairs but as they are about to get to the second floor the wall of the building caves in and the dragon blasts fire into the room, Ralof grabs Leytiri by the back of her shirt and pulls her away from the fire.  One of the soldiers ahead had not been so lucky, she tries to block out his screams but she can’t.  </p><p>The dragon flies away and Ralof points towards an inn across from the building they are in now.  He shouts, “jump to the inn!  We will meet up again!”  </p><p>Leytiri had never been very physically active and wasn’t sure if she could make it.  So she took a deep breath, steadied herself, and leaped for the inn.  When she landed her left foot went out beneath her and her knee banged into the floor painfully.  She cried out but quickly got back to her feet.  If she stayed she would die, she needed to go!</p><p>Down through a hole in the inn she landed on the ground where she could see the soldier who had kindly offered to send her body to the Summerset Isles.  She raced over to him and watched as he gave orders to his men.  The dragon lands across from them and they race behind a building to avoid the fire.  The soldier looks at her, surprised. </p><p>“Still alive?”  She nods, unable to speak.  “Good, stick with me if you want to stay that way.”  She nods again.  He turns away from her to talk to a civilian who calls him Hadvar.  </p><p>Hadvar runs towards a wall and she stays close to him.  He looks back at her, “stay close to the wall!”  </p><p>Not needing to be told twice, Leytiri presses herself flush against the wall and just in time too.  The dragons wings come down right in front of her and blasts more fire onto the town as she tries not to scream.  As the dragon takes flight again Hadvar grabs her arm, “follow me!”  </p><p>The two of them run through a group of soldiers, valiantly trying to combat the dragon.  Hadvar looks back at her again, “it’s just you and me, Leytiri.  Stay close!”  </p><p>They run through an arch and Hadvar shouts, “Ralof!”  Leytiri sees Ralof standing in the middle of the town, staring daggers at Hadvar.  He says, “we’re escaping Hadvar.  There’s nothing you can do about it!  If you want to stop me then you will have to fight me.”  </p><p>Hadvar shouts back, “fine!  I hope that dragon takes you all to sovngarde.”  </p><p>Before the two can come to blows the dragon lands again and while rearing back to blow fire on them, the two men head for different buildings.  Ralof shouts, “you!  Follow me!” at Leytiri.  </p><p>Hadvar yells, “prisoner!  With me!”  </p><p>Leytiri has only seconds to make a decision, they both had protected her!  The dragon roars and she can see little flames shoot from his mouth and she makes her decision.  Leytiri races towards Hadvar and just as she reaches the door she can hear a voice in her head, a dark, evil voice.  The dragon?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. The journey through Helgen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings for this chapter include some violence.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As they enter the building Hadvar sighs.  “It looks like we’re the only ones who made it.  Was that really a dragon?  The… bringers of the end times?”  </p><p>Leytiri doesn’t say anything, she just nods.  She had never thought that she would see a dragon, let alone nearly be killed by one half a dozen times in the matter of minutes!  </p><p>Hadvar looks around.  “There are chests in here.  Look for some equipment.  I’ll look for something to put on my burns.”  </p><p>Leytiri opens a chest in the corner that has a sword and Imperial armor in it.  She quickly puts on the armor over her clothes and hesitates before picking up the sword.  She could touch it, she just couldn’t use it.  If it came time for battle she would use her magic. </p><p>Hadvar motions to her.  “Let’s get moving.”  He pulls a switch and a gate opens, as it does the dragon roars again and Hadvar tells her to follow him.  As they run down the hall they find another barred door.  Before Hadvar pulls the switch a man and a woman can be heard talking to each other.  </p><p>Hadvar looks at Leytiri.  “Stormcloaks.  Maybe we can reason with them.”  </p><p>Leytiri doubted that very much.  The Stormcloaks seemed to hate the Imperials and based on how they feel about the Thalmor she assumed they wouldn’t feel too bad about attacking her either.  But she follows him into the room anyways.  Three Stormcloaks stand there and before Hadvar can get the words out they attack.  </p><p>Leytiri hits the female soldier with the spell Fury and she turns on her comrades and starts hacking at them with her sword.  While Hadvar is busy with one soldier Leytiri uses her flames to attack the other.  The man falls quickly, then so does Hadvar, and just as the third soldier starts to return to her normal self Hadvar cuts her down.  </p><p>He rushes to the gates and opens it, shouting for her to follow him.  </p><p>But Leytiri looks down upon the three corpses on the ground.  She had never harmed anyone before, but now, in a matter of a week, she had killed or helped kill four.  How many more would follow?  </p><p>She closes her eyes for a moment and sends up a silent prayer for them before following Hadvar.  They run down a flight of stares and step into another hallway.  At the end of it she can see three men but when she steps towards them Hadvar pulls her back as the ceiling caves in.  Thankfully the door isn’t blocked but Leytiri sends up another prayer for the poor souls trapped in the cave in.  </p><p>Hadvar opens the door and Leytiri hears a man talking about the Imperials having potions.  Hadvar rushes to attack them and Leytiri draws forth the fire into her hand again.  If only she could have done this so readily in her room, much would have been different…</p><p>They quickly kill the two soldiers and Hadvar tells her to look for potions.  She finds some, and a little bit of food.  She stuffs them into a bag and ties it around her back.  It’s not much but hopefully if she survives she can sell a few things and get out of Skyrim.  </p><p>Suddenly Leytiri can hear a scream from down the stairs.  Hadvar says something about a torture room before telling her to follow him.  They race down the stairs and help two soldiers kill two Stomcloaks.  The torturer and Hadvar argue back and forth about leaving the keep or not and something about a dead man in a cage.  Hadvar tells Leytiri to try to pick the lock on a cage and points her to a bag with lockpicks in it.  </p><p>Leytiri knew how to pick locks, she had learned from DarJi who thought it was an excellent skill to have.  She had only ever done it on rooms at the Order though, and only a few times.  Hopefully she could do it now.  She kneels in front of a cage door, a dead mage lay inside.  Trying not to think about him she takes a lockpick and pushes it into the keyhole.  She fiddles with the lock for a little bit before it finally clicks open.  </p><p>Inside there sits a potion, some gold coins which she feels guilty taking, and a spell book.  She hesitates before going through his clothes and finally taking them.  She could fetch a lot of money for those clothes, and that money could get her out of Skyrim.  She needed to do this.  </p><p>She squeezes the mans shoulders, begging for forgiveness in her mind before turning to follow Hadvar.  They go down another hallway and some steps.  Leytiri can hear voices ahead of her and allows Hadvar to go first.  There sounds to be many of them, at least four or five, and Leytiri looks down at the hilt of the sword she is carrying.  Can she survive without using it?  </p><p>Hadvar charges into the room and she follows him with the torturers assistant behind her.  She and Hadvar team up on two soldiers while the assistant is killed trying to kill a third.  The two soldiers fall swiftly and the third right after.  An arrow whizzes past Leytiri’s head, and she and Hadvar look towards the two soldiers standing across the room, both archers.  Leytiri sees oil on the ground and smiles, she lifts her hand and shoots flames across the room and it touches the oil.  She watches as the two men go up in flames, trying and failing to put the fire out with their hands and feet.  She watches as they finally succumb and fall to the ground.  </p><p>Hadvar dashes across the room and she follows him.  She hasn’t had to use a weapon yet, though it’s been pretty close.  How does Prentis go on all those missions to dangerous places and never have to use a weapon?  </p><p>She and Hadvar cross a bridge and within seconds of crossing a cave in behind them crushes the bridge.  There’s no going back, hopefully the way forward is safe.  They walk down some steps and down a stream until they come to another hallway.  At the end of it they step into a cavern and suddenly four or five frostbite spiders lunge for them.  </p><p>Leytiri hurls flames at them and watches as they die quickly.  Disgusted, she starts searching their bodies and finds frostbite venom.  She knows that she can get a good price for them, hopefully she can survive this hellhole and sell this stuff.  Everything she is taking here will fund her journey to Cyrodiil.  </p><p>They keep walking until they come upon another cavern.  In the middle of the room lays a bear.  Leytiri swallows hard, she had hunted at the Order but she had never faced a bear.  Hadvar hands her a bow and arrows and she straps the bow to her back.  Was she allowed to use a weapon against an animal?  Animals aren’t people.  But truthfully she had always liked them more than people.  </p><p>Leytiri crouches to the ground and Hadvar follows her lead.  She had no interest in fighting the bear.  This was the bears home, they were invading her home.  She would try to sneak out without engaging with the animal.  They sneak around the bear and down the next pathway.  The bear roars and Leytiri dashes down the pathway, Hadvar running behind her.  Up ahead Leytiri sees light coming from the end of the tunnel.  </p><p>Hadvar shouts, “that’s the exit!”  </p><p>She runs out of the cave but Hadvar grabs her, “wait!”  </p><p>The dragon roars and Hadvar drags Leytiri to the ground.  They wait, silent, as the dragons roars get quieter.  Hadvar sighs, “he’s leaving.  But we should leave before he comes back.”  </p><p>Leytiri nods, she couldn’t wait to get to the next town and start trying to get some money to get out of Skyrim.</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Tranquil Riverwood</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you to everyone who has read this far, I think this story is going to be much longer than I had originally intended because I feel a need to show just how excited Leytiri is every time she picks a flower, which will probably get annoying at some point and her excitement for finding ingredients will soon fade.  </p><p>Warnings for this chapter are a little bit of violence.  I hope you all enjoy and after this chapter it will be on to Whiterun!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hadvar and Leytiri start down the hill from the cave leading to Helgen.  He throws a look over his shoulder at her.  “The closest town is Riverwood.  My uncle lives there, you can ask him for help.  It’s probably best if we split up, good luck.  I wouldn’t have made it without your help, thank you.” He puts a hand on her shoulder.  “Listen, you should really consider joining the Legion.  Please consider it.”</p><p>Leytiri just nods and watches him run down the pathway.  She sighs and starts down at a much slower pace.  If she follows the path she should make it to Riverwood and as she walks she can pick up ingredients to sell.  She hoped that there were at least a couple traders in Riverwood that could buy her ingredients.  </p><p>From there she could make her way north to Whiterun, she knew there were plenty of places to trade there.  She would also be safe behind walls, and surrounded by soldiers.  There, she could start her plans to get out of Skyrim.  </p><p>Leytiri doesn’t make it far down the path before she finds a few red mountain flowers.  They weren’t worth much but they could be used in several potions.  She lifts one to her nose and gives it a sniff, she had always loved flowers, ever since she was a little girl and her mother would go out foraging for them.  She puts the flowers in her bag and keeps going down the hill, not making it far before finding a clearing full blue mountain flowers, purple mountain flowers, and even some thistle.  She stashes all of them into her bag.  </p><p>She felt guilty about picking all of these flowers, hoping that more would grow in their place.  If she wasn’t so desperate for money to get out of Skyrim she wouldn’t pick a single one.  Leytiri had always valued nature.  She looks up and realizes that Hadvar is waiting just a little bit down the road, probably keeping an eye on her no doubt.  </p><p>Her feet carry her closer to him and he keeps going down the path, not speaking to her.  She appreciates it, she wasn’t much of a talker and preferred to keep to her own thoughts.  As they walk every time she spots a flower she grabs one, and even got so lucky as to find a Mora Tapinella.  </p><p>“Hey, come look at this.”  Leytiri looks up and realizes that Hadvar has stopped around some sort of ruin.  “This is a guardian stone.  There are thirteen of these stones that are in Skyrim.  Go take a look.”</p><p>Unsure, Leytiri hesitates for just a moment before stepping up onto the platform.  There are three stones.  On one there is a picture of a man wearing armor and a sword.  On the second there is a mage holding a staff.  On the third there is a man wearing a cloak and holding a bag of money, it looks like.  A warrior, a mage, and a thief.  She puts her hand on the mage stone and suddenly a warm, blue light goes through the stone and into her hand.  She presses her other hand against her chest over her heart, and she can feel the power within her, whatever it is.  </p><p>“A mage, huh?  Well, not my place to judge you.”  Hadvar turns to start going down the path again.  “Riverwood is this way, remember to talk to my uncle, he’s the blacksmith.”  </p><p>She follows him at a slower pace, picking all the flowers as they go along.  Suddenly a howl pierces the air and Leytiri looks up, seeing three wolves on the hill beside them.  Hadvar shoots at one of them with his bow and Leytiri sends flames at the second, igniting the poor things fur.  The third lunges at her and knocks her back into the water and she brings her hands up to send flames shooting from both of them at it.  An arrow pierces it’s head and kills it instantly.  </p><p>Leytiri sighs as Hadvar reaches a hand out to pull her out of the water.  She was almost useless in that fight.  Her flames didn’t kill the wolves fast enough and her life was in danger when she went into the water.  What if he hadn’t been there?  She should have used Fury on them… but she wasn’t sure if it would have even worked.  She looks down at the sword belted at her waist.  Would it really do much harm to use it on an animal?  People, no.  But an animal?</p><p>She looks up and realizes that Hadvar had made it quite far down the path and the sun is going down, they should get to the safety of town.  When she catches up to him he flashes a smile at her.  “I’m glad you came with me, we’re almost there.”  Leytiri looks up and sees a town just ahead.  </p><p>Hadvar rushes into the town and Leytiri falls back a little bit.  She watches as he runs up to a man and they talk for a bit.  The man points at her and says, “who is that?”  </p><p>Leytiri offers him a small smile and Hadvar smiles as well.  “She is a friend, Alvor. She saved my life.  Let’s go inside, come Leytiri.”  </p><p>She follows them into the building.  A woman comes up from the basement as they enter and she tells them to sit and have something to eat.  Leytiri sits down at the table and listens as Hadvar and his uncle talk about the dragon attack.  Hadvar’s aunt places a plate with bread and butter in front of Leytiri and, suddenly feeling how hungry she is, Leytiri starts eating the bread quickly.  She hadn’t eaten since the soup and bread from Falkreath and she didn’t know how long that had been.  </p><p>Alvor looks at Leytiri as she shoves the bread into her mouth, not caring how she looks.  “Any friend of Hadvar’s is a friend of mine.  Take whatever you need from us, food, clothes, anything.”  </p><p>Leytiri glances at Hadvar and he nods encouragingly.  She clears her throat.  “If you wouldn’t mind giving me some potions and food, or any ingredients for potions that you have that would be great.  If I can do something in return, please, say the word.”  </p><p>Alvor nods.  “Aye.  Hadvar will be heading for Solitude, and we need someone to travel to Whiterun to tell the Jarl that a dragon attacked Helgen.  Could you please help us do that?”  </p><p>Hadvar’s aunt places a bowl of soup in front of her and she nods at Alvor.  How could she refuse them?  They are sheltering her, and feeding her.  And besides, she had already planned on heading for Whiterun anyways.  Leytiri dips her spoon into the soup and takes a bite, by the gods it was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted.  </p><p>Alvor smiles at her.  “My wife is a lovely cook.  You can feel free to spend the night here if you wish.”  He points to a bed just as Hadvar gets up and starts downstairs.  </p><p>Leytiri nods.  “Thank you Alvor.  I’ll start out for Whiterun in the morning.”  </p><p>She finishes her soup and gets up from the table to lay down in the bed.  She sighs as her head hits the pillow.  Her hand reaches into her bag and she feels around all of the flowers she got today, thirty-eight in total.  Not to mention all of the fungi and other things she found.  She would have to find an alchemy table in Whiterun and make some potions.  She couldn’t wait to get there tomorrow.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. The Road to Whiterun</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Leytiri wakes up in the morning she says goodbye to Alvor and his wife and departs their home.  She scours through Riverwood for all the flowers and other ingredients she can find.  When she has picked everything she could she makes her way to the Riverwood trader.  </p><p>Upon opening the door, Leytiri hears a man and a woman arguing.  She considers backing out the door but she really needs to sell some of the things she took from Helgen, her bag sure is getting heavy.  When the shop owner, she thinks his name is Lucan, finally realizes she is standing there he apologizes and explains to her that an item that is precious to him and his sister was stolen.  </p><p>Leytiri listens and when he is done she sells some of the things she found in Helgen, almost everything except for the sword and the potions and food.  She didn’t know why she couldn’t part with the sword, she just couldn’t.  Maybe because when she awoke outside of Helgen she had realized her dagger was gone…  </p><p>Lucan hands Leytiri her coins after he takes the items and Leytiri places them into her bag. She thanks him and walks out, waiting for the door to close behind her before she gives out a small whoop of joy.  She had walked in there with just over a hundred gold, she left with just over six hundred.  And she hadn’t even sold a single ingredient!  She should have no trouble once she gets to Whiterun.  </p><p>She walks down the pathway towards the second entrance of town and across a bridge.  She turns right and starts walking down the road, picking an occasional flower or fungi as she goes along.  The day is lovely, and she can hear all the birds chirping as she walks.  A wolf howl sounds close to her but when she looks around she doesn’t see anything.  She holds up her hands, ready to fire off a spell if need be, but doesn’t stop walking.  </p><p>Suddenly, two wolves charge her and she uses Fury on one who turns on the other, the two fight as Leytiri shoots flames at both.  Eventually, they succumb to their wounds.  She hesitates before walking over to them, unwilling to cut off their pelts but not to check out their bodies.  On one of them she finds a garnet!  Leytiri palms the red stone before dropping it into her bag.  That gem could easily fetch her another fifty septims if she found the right buyer for it.  </p><p>Leytiri continues down the path until she rounds a corner and stops suddenly.  In front of her in the distance she can see a city on a hill reaching up towards the sky.  Whiterun.  The little girl in Leytiri wants to charge down the path and race to the city, knowing that she’d be safe there.  She could deliver her message to the Jarl, if he would even agree to meet with her, and then find a place to stay at an inn.  She could work, who knows, maybe if she loves Whiterun enough she could stay.  It wasn’t a bad place to live, and she would be far enough from the Order they probably wouldn’t have many reasons to come visit there.  </p><p>Then again… they did come to Falkreath…</p><p>At a slower pace Leytiri starts back down the path and along the road heading towards the city.  She stops every few seconds to pick flowers, even catching a couple butterflies.  She feels guilt again but tries to suppress it.  Butterfly wings are valuable.  </p><p>A roar sounds through the sky and Leytiri looks up, worried, the dragon?  No, not fifty feet from her she sees a giant attacking three people, two women and a man.  Without thinking leytiri shoves her ingredients into her bag and runs towards the people fighting the giant and sends a shot of flames from her left hand and sparks from her right.  As the dual spells hit the giant the three people continue striking him with their swords and slowly the giant succumbs to his wounds.  Eventually it falls to the ground where the man cuts its throat, killing it.  </p><p>One of the women, she has paint on her face, comes up to Leytiri.  “Thank you for the help shield-sister.”  </p><p>Leytiri lifts an eyebrow.  “Shield-sister?”  </p><p>The woman nods towards Whiterun.  “Come to Jorrvaskr in Whiterun, and speak to Kodlak if you wish to join the Companions.”  </p><p>The other woman nods and the man, who Leytiri has to admit is handsome, smiles at her and nods as well.  As they turn to leave Leytiri kneels down to check out the body of the giant.  She is disappointed to come away with only six arrows.  Sighing, she rises and starts back up the path to the city.  When she gets to the gates she is pleasantly surprised to see a Khajiit caravan.  Though he was harsh sometimes, she had always liked DarJi, he had even tried to be kind to her when she left the Order.  He had given her a couple health potions, and told her to be careful, even allowing her a quick hug goodbye.  He had been a part of her life since she was small… </p><p>Trying to push away those thoughts Leytiri walks up the hill to get to the city gates.  Two soldiers stand there and one of them holds up his hand when she tries to enter.  “Halt.  No one is allowed entry while there are dragons around, unless they have business with the Jarl.”  </p><p>Leytiri swallows hard.  What if they wouldn’t let her in?  “I’ve been sent by the blacksmith of Riverwood to speak to the Jarl of Whiterun.  I witnessed the dragon attack at Helgen and need to speak to him immediately.”  </p><p>The two soldiers glance at each other before the one who spoke to her turns back to her.  “You may enter.  But we will be keeping our eyes on you, understand?”</p><p>Leytiri nods and watches as they open the gates, she hesitates for a moment before stepping through them and into Whiterun.  To Leytiri, who had never seen a city before, this place was large, and beautiful.  From where she stood at the entrance she could see at least seven clusters of flowers.  She picked one, and when neither of the guards yelled at her she picked the rest of them.  Slightly giddy, she started walking down the main road, enjoying all the sounds of life in the town.  When she looked to the right she could see a large mountain, when she looked to the left she could see a castle, certainly where the Jarl lived.  </p><p>She walks past the blacksmith, a woman, and past a house that seems to be vacant.  Perhaps it could one day be home, should she make this place her home.  She walks past a building that says Belethor’s General Goods on the door, she would have to go in there to sell potions.  </p><p>Then her eyes spot Arcadia’s Cauldron.  And the Nightshade and Dragon’s Tongue beside the door.  She picks the flowers and contemplates going inside.  Maybe Arcadia, or whoever owns the store, would let her work there.  But first, she needed to see the Jarl, the business with the dragon was more important than her needs.  </p><p>When she turns she spots the inn, the Bannered Mare.  She supposed that would be her home for awhile.  As she walks up the stairs she looks to her right and sees a large building.  Maybe that is the Jorrvaskr the three outside Whiterun had told her about?  </p><p>A man, across the courtyard from her wearing robes started shouting, “I alone have been anointed!”  </p><p>Leytiri snorts, sure he has.  She passes him, ignoring him, and starts up the stairs to the castle.  When she gets to the top of the stairs she hesitates outside of the doors.  There are no guards here which Leytiri finds to be suspicious.  What if they didn’t allow her to stay?  What if they didn’t believe her?  What if they thought she should be killed since she was a prisoner at Helgen?  </p><p>There was only one way to find out those answers.  Leytiri grabs one of the handles, and pushes open the door.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. The Reward</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings for this chapter include violence.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Upon entering the castle Leytiri stops moving when she sees a guard, thinking that he’ll kick her out.  But he doesn’t say anything to her, just nods.  There are two women sweeping and Leytiri walks past them, hesitating before going up the stairs.  She can hear two men arguing.</p><p>As she reaches the top of the stairs a female Dark Elf approaches her with her sword drawn.  “What’s the meaning of this interruption?  The Jarl is very busy.”  </p><p>Leytiri swallows hard.  “I saw the dragon at Helgen.  I was sent here to speak to the Jarl.”  </p><p>The Dark Elf sheaths her blade and turns on her heel.  “You’re the one that the guards allowed into the city.  Come, speak to the Jarl.”  </p><p>Leytiri hesitates before stepping past the fire in the middle of the room towards the throne where a blonde man sits.  Prentis had told her that his name is Balgruuf.  </p><p>Balgruuf looks at her.  “So you were at Helgen when the dragon attacked?”</p><p>She nods.  “Yes.  Ulfric Stormcloak was about to be executed when the dragon attacked.”  Leytiri feels guilty, it had been she who was about to be executed when the beast attacked but perhaps now was not the best time to admit that.  </p><p>Balgruuf snorts.  “I should have known Ulfric would have been involved somehow…”  He looks at the man on his right.  “What do you say Proventis?  We can not trust in the strength of our walls against a bloody dragon of all things!”  </p><p>The Dark Elf clears her throat loudly.  “We need to send troops to Riverwood, now.  If that thing is hiding in the mountains then they are in danger.”</p><p>Proventus steps towards the elf.  “If we do that then that will only anger the Jarl of Falkreath!  He will think that we have sided with Ulfric and his rabble.”  </p><p>Balgruuf holds up a hand towards Proventus.  “Enough!  Irileth will send soldiers to Riverwood now.”</p><p>As Proventus attempts to protest the Dark Elf, Irileth, says, “yes, my Jarl.”  </p><p>Proventus, realizing his voice will not be heard on this matter, sighs.  “I shall attend to my other duties, my Jarl.”  </p><p>Balgruuf nods.  “That would be for the best, Proventus.”  </p><p>When Proventus has left the room Balgruuf turns back towards Leytiri.  “You have done my people a great service, and I shall reward you for it.  Take this armor.”  </p><p>He hands her steel armor and Leytiri runs her hand along it.  It’s heavy, very heavy, and Leytiri has doubts that she’d be able to wear it.  She was always used to wearing robes, and even the light armor she is wearing now is much heavier than her robes from the Order were.  She didn’t want to sell the armor, as it was a gift, but she doubted she could wear it.  Maybe once she got a house she would put it in a chest and save it.  </p><p>Balgruuf stands and motions to her.  “Come, I have something I would like you to do, if you are amenable.  Let’s go speak to the court wizard.”  </p><p>Leytiri suppresses a sigh.  She just wanted to get out of here, make enough money to get out of Skyrim, and leave.  But he had given her a fine gift and it would be rude of her not to even ask what favor he wanted to ask of her.  So she follows him into the next room where a robed man is working at a desk.  </p><p>Balgruuf looks at the other man.  “Farengar, I’ve found someone who might be able to help you with your dragon project.”</p><p>Farengar looks at Leytiri and lifts one of his eyebrows at her.  “I need you to fetch something for me from Bleak Falls Barrow.”  </p><p>Leytiri waits for him to continue but when he doesn’t she looks at Balgruuf before back at Farengar.  “You want me to fetch something for you?”</p><p>He crosses his arms and scowls.  “Well, maybe not so much fetch.  I really want you to delve into a possibly very dangerous ruin and get a stone tablet for me.  Find it and bring it back to me.  Off you go.”  </p><p>Balgruuf chuckles and walks out of the room and Leytiri follows him.  He nods to her before heading back up to his throne.  In a bit of a daze Leytiri starts back down the stairs and walks out of the castle.  She didn’t sign up for delving into dangerous ruins to look for stone tablets.  She had agreed to give a message, that was it.  But when she reaches into her bag and feels the cold steel of the armor Balgruuf gave her she realizes that perhaps she owed them this one little thing.  </p><p>So with that Leytiri marches down the steps to the lower part of the city and makes her way outside of the gates.  She hums to herself as the sun sets lower and lower as she walks back the direction she had came.  She knew that Bleak Falls Barrow was near Riverwood, Hadvar had pointed it out to her when they got there.  </p><p>It takes her nearly three hours, but she finally makes it back to the bridge to Riverwood.  Instead of crossing the bridge to go to town she turns right and starts heading up a hill.  Almost instantly she hears a wolf howl and uses her sparks to kill it.  Still hesitant to skin the beast she searches its body instead.  She finds a silver garnet ring!  </p><p>Leytiri slides the ring onto her finger and giggles a little bit.  Her mother had a silver ring, it was beautiful and sometimes she would let Leytiri wear it.  It didn’t have a garnet on it though.  Leytiri sighs, gods how she missed her mother...</p><p>She shakes her head.  There’s no use thinking about the past right now.  She needs to get to the Barrow and find that stone tablet thing and bring it back to Whiterun.  She keeps the ring on her finger as she makes her way up the hill but when she gets to a tower an archer and two  sword wielding bandits leap out at her.  Retreating back down the hill a little bit she lures the two bandits with swords after her.  She climbs onto a rock and waits until they appear around the corner.  Leytiri remembered how the giant had fallen to her dual spells before and she gathers both fire and sparks into her hands and unleashes it upon them.  </p><p>The man starts shaking as the sparks pass through him, he drops his sword and shakes uncontrollably, screaming for help.  But the flames set the woman’s clothes on fire, and she drops to the ground trying to put them out.  They both die slowly, horribly, and Leytiri can’t help the tears from sliding down her cheeks.  It was her or them… It was her or them…</p><p>The archer, who had stepped around the corner with his bow knocked, cries out in horror upon seeing his dead comrades and steps back too far.  He falls from the side of the mountain and Leytiri sobs as he falls screaming to the ground.  </p><p>Leytiri falls to her knees and sobs into her hands.  No wonder Prentis preferred to hide in the shadows and use his invisibility spells.  He hated to kill, and only did it when necessary.  How many had she killed by now?  And how many of them would have died quicker had she used a knife or a bow?  </p><p>Not for the first time she wonders if magic truly is as natural as the Order had made it out to be.  Perhaps man made weapons because they were a quicker death than magic.  Leytiri wipes her eyes.  After the Barrow she will deliver the tablet back to Farengar and then she will never, ever kill another person.  That man and woman would be the last.  </p><p>Leytiri makes her way through the tower that the bandits had died trying to protect.  She comes across a bag of seventeen septims.  At the top of the tower she finds a chest with three potions, a scroll, fifty septims, and an axe inside.  She puts all of it into her bag.  She felt guilty again, she had killed them and now she was stealing their stuff.  What kind of monster is she?</p><p>She makes her way back down the stairs and starts up the mountain again.  She rounds one last corner and stops dead.  Bleak Falls Barrow is large, and kind of frightening.  If Leytiri had to guess, she imagined there would be draugr inside. She takes a deep breath and starts up the stairs, expecting to see draugr but as she reaches the top of the stairs she finds herself standing in front of four bandits instead. </p><p>Leytiri slips trying to go back down the stairs and she uses one of her hands to catch herself, with the other she throws Fury at two of the bandits who quickly turns on the others.  The four fight each other as Leytiri rights herself and puts her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist.   No one would know if she did it… just this once.  How could she face four men at once without it?  </p><p>She swallows hard.  No, she can’t!  She gathers fire and sparks into her hands again and sends the spells shooting at all four of the bandits, they all fall screaming to the ground where they succumb to their injuries, on fire and shaking.  </p><p>Wanting to fall to her knees again in tears but refusing to Leytiri searches their bodies.  She finds a lot of gold and some good loot too.  Thoroughly disgusted with herself, Leytiri marches up the stairs to the door of Bleak Falls Barrow and puts her hand on it.  She promises to herself that after she does this job for Farengar she will never lift her hands to hurt them with magic ever again.  Nor will she lift a blade.  </p><p>Though… Leytiri wasn’t positive that she wouldn’t lift a sword for this mission.  It seemed a quicker, gentler death than writhing in pain while sparks coursed through you or flames burned you alive…  </p><p>Leytiri pushes hard on the door and it swings open.  She steps into Bleak Falls Barrow.</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Bleak Falls Barrow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry everyone for this chapter coming so late after the last one, I'm in college and my class load this semester has been pretty big so I've not had much time for games right now.  But I had a few spare hours and launched myself into Bleak Falls Barrow.  And let me tell you, only using magic sucks but I want to stay loyal to the character so I loaded her up with quite a few health potions and played through the dungeon.  I'll try to get the next chapter out within the next few days.  </p><p>Warnings for this chapter include some violence and language.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Upon entering Bleak Falls Barrow Leytiri used a quick healing spell to take care of the wounds the bandits outside had inflicted on her.  She crouches down and takes a look around.  She could hear the wind coming through a hole in the ceiling.  In the distance she can hear footsteps.  She slowly steps forward, spotting two dead skeevers on the ground.  She hesitates between picking up three septims from the bodies.  </p><p>Across from them lays a dead bandit and Leytiri picks his body clean of his septims.  Ahead of her she can hear two people talking and she inches forward still crouched low to the ground.  She doubted that she was sneaky enough to go past them unseen and she doubted her invisibility spell to keep her hidden.  Her eyes rested on the hilt of the sword she took from Helgen, still strapped to her waist.  </p><p>Leytiri never wanted to kill someone as painfully as she did to the two bandits who convulsed and burned to death…</p><p>She closes her eyes.  No!  She swore that she would never use another weapon.  She would obey the Order, she would.  She slowly sneaks around a column towards the voices where she finds another skeever body.  As she walks up a couple steps she realizes that there is a dead body sitting on a table at the top of the stairs.  It is a man, and his legs are hanging off of the side.  </p><p>“What was that?”  </p><p>Suddenly, a man and a woman come around the column towards her and the woman pulls out an arrow.  Leytiri fires Fury at the man and he turns on the woman.  The woman aims at Leytiri who throws herself behind the column just in time.  She listens from behind the stone as steel from their blades strike sharply against each other.  Her hands glow with both fire and sparks as she waits for one of them to come after her again.  </p><p>The two fall silent and Leytiri waits a few minutes, her heart pounding in her chest.  Wondering not for the first time how Prentis had gone on all of those missions without lifting a blade a single time.  Sure, his invisibility spells are extremely powerful and he could probably easily walk through a dungeon without needing a break.  But in all of his years he never came close to having to use a weapon?  </p><p>She sighs and raises from her crouched position.  Now or never.  She steps around the column and finds both of the bandits dead, they must have finished each other off while the man was under her spell.  She loots their bodies, as well as the man up the steps on the table.  She steps around a fire where she spots a locked chest.  </p><p>Leytiri looks around to make sure she’s alone before kneeling down the chest and gets out her lock picks.  She twiddles the lock pick first to the right where it doesn’t budge before she twists it all the way to the left where it gives a little.  Slowly she works her way closer to the middle before the lock clicks.  When she opens the chest she’s delighted to find at least fifty septims.  </p><p>As she starts down the stairs she crouches again, maybe if she gets good at sneaking that will help her get past enemies and she won’t have to fight them.  Leytiri passes through three spider webs as she makes her way down the stairs, trying not to think about little spiders crawling this way and that across her body.  She shivers, imagining the tiny little legs scurrying through her hair and down her legs.  When she gets to the next floor she finds a burial urn.  </p><p>She swallows hard.  Can she do it?  She lifts the top of the urn off and spots eight gold septims inside.  Slowly she puts the top back on the urn.  No, she just can’t do it, leave that to the dead.  </p><p>Shivering, Leytiri passes two more urns as she makes her way further down the stairs.  To her left, there are more stairs but ahead of them it looks like there was a cave in, so she goes forward and turns right instead.  Ahead of her she spots another dead skeever, there simply can’t be only two bandits inside especially when there were so many outside waiting.  She turns left again.  She comes across a book shelf where a single health potion lay, which she grabs and stuffs into her bag.  </p><p>Leytiri steps into another room and walks around a column.  Suddenly, a flurry of arrows sound through the air from further ahead and she hears a man groan before a body hits the floor.  She doesn’t move from her crouched position, listening for more noises but hearing none but the dust falling from the ceiling.  She had assumed there would be drougr in this temple but so far nothing.  Perhaps it was a bandit that was killed by those arrows, he must have triggered a trap.  She steps down the stairs into the room ahead.</p><p>In the room there lays a dead man on the floor, the one who must have been killed by the arrows.  In front of him lay a lever, and in front of the lever on the ground is a snake symbol.  Leytiri looks up and sees two other symbols, a snake and a fish.  She looks to the left and sees three symbols bearing pictures of two hawks and a fish.  Tentatively, she approaches them and runs her hand along the first hawk.  The stone moves slightly and she looks over at the snake symbol on the ground.  Perhaps if she moved these stones here to show the same symbols as the ones by the door the door will open…</p><p>The first symbol she turns until it shows the snake.  The second one, the same.  The third symbol she turns to the fish.  When she steps back towards the lever she pulls out the shield she had gotten at Helgen.  Unlike the fool of a bandit she would at least try to protect herself from the trap should she be wrong.  So Leytiri crouches behind her shield, grips the lever, and slams it forward.  </p><p>The gate immediately slides upwards!  Leytiri grin, unable to contain her glee.  She figured out the trap on her first try!  She pushes her shield back into her bag but remains in a crouched position as she slowly walks into the next room.  There she finds a book titled Thief, a potion, and a chest with a battleaxe and a few septims inside.  All of the items are stuffed into her bag.  When she turns around she spots a spiral staircase going down.  </p><p>Leytiri takes a deep breath before slowly making her way down the stairs.  The stairs are rickety and old, so they make noises as she makes her way down them.  She just has to hope that no one can hear her.  Suddenly, as her feet touch the last step four skeevers launch themselves at her.  She throws herself back of the steps a few paces before she hurls her flames at them and watches as they quickly burn to death.  She takes a deep breath before going back down the stairs, stepping over the blackened bodies of the skeevers.  </p><p>The next room she comes across is full of cobwebs but on the table sits a fireball scroll and a paralysis poison.  Leytiri smiles, she could get a good price for both of those and this could be her last venture into a dark, dirty dungeon.  As she steps into the doorway to the stairs going bellow she can hear a man shouting out if she’s one of three names that she doesn’t quite catch.  She readies her spells, and starts down the stairs.  </p><p>Sitting in front of a massive pile of spider web is a skeleton, picked clean.  Across a doorway is a thick mess of spider web.  Realizing that that is the only way through, Leytiri sighs.  It’s too thick for her to just walk through so she sends a burst of flames against it before she walks on through.  Her fire couldn’t get everything, and she tries to ignore the threads in her hair and tries not to imagine little bodies scurrying all over hers.  </p><p>As she steps into the room a man shouts for help and Leytiri looks up just as a massive frostbite spider descends from the ceiling.  Leytiri backs up through the door and quickly realizes that the spider is too big to follow her through!  She shoots flames and sparks at it as she dodges the gunk it spits at her and slowly the spider starts to writhe in pain and it’s legs nearly as tall as Leytiri herself starts shooting out in convulsions.  Before the beast is even dead the man behind it screams for her to let him down.  </p><p>She pushes the beast aside and before she approaches the man she checks the two urns in the room, both holding silver rings!  The man shouts again and Leytiri hurries over to him.  </p><p>“it’s about fucking time!  Let me down, I have the golden claw, I know what it does we can share the treasure!”  </p><p>Leytiri remembers the shop owner in Riverwood talking about a golden claw… it had been stolen from him.  But first she should let the man down.  Not wanting to burn him, she pulls the sword from it’s sheath and hacks at the spider web until the man comes loose and falls to the ground.  He laughs, “you idiot!  I’m not sharing the treasure with anyone.”  He turns and bolts down the passageway.  </p><p>She sighs.  As much as she wants to give the golden claw back to its rightful owner she had a job to do.  If she caught the man on her way to the weird stone tablet thing she would get the golden claw back.  She makes her way down the passageway into a circular room that held one soul gem and a couple empty urns.  She walks down the stairs where four draugr fight the man she had rescued from the spider.  Feeling guilty, she stands in the doorway and let the draugr kill the man before she rains her flames down upon them.  The four quickly go up in flames before crumbling to ash.  </p><p>When she searches the mans body she finds the golden claw and a book that says Arvel’s Journal on the first page.  She quickly reads it before putting it and the claw in her bag.  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to use the claw to get the treasure and then give it back to the trader in Riverwood.  She had no intention of selling it though she knew it would go for a hefty price, that was just wrong.  But there was nothing wrong, she thought, in using it to find the treasure. </p><p>As she made her way further down the stairs she came across a tunnel with three swinging axes going back and forth, another trap.  She waits as they all swing towards the wall before she dashes through.  She starts back down the stairs before she comes across three draugr who run towards her.  Leytiri dashes back through the swinging axes trap and watches as the brainless draugr try to follow her.  The axes hack them to pieces and, as the axes swing back into the walls again, she dashes through. </p><p>She sighs again and starts back down the stairs and around the columns until she comes to some stairs leading up.  She wants to take a break and eat but the only thing she has on her is a sweet roll, she would have to wait until she got to Riverwood.  She walks up the stairs slowly until she comes across a room with a waterfall.  Across the room she could see a chest, and she could barely make out a doorway with a gate blocking it.  </p><p>As she steps into the room a draugr bursts from a coffin and attacks her.  She quickly shoots flames at it and watches it fall to the ground.  She goes through the chest before making her way to the gate where a chain rests next to it.  She hesitates before pulling the chain, afraid there was some kind of trap.  But there isn’t, the gate raises and stays that way.  She makes her way down a passageway before coming out into a cave like place.  </p><p>She makes her way down the path and stops to pick some glowing mushrooms, she always loved them as a child.  She continues down the path until she finds another draugr standing along on an icy ledge.  She uses her flames on him until he steps off of the path and falls down below.  She keeps going until she finds a single draugr alone in a room with a chest, the door behind him.  The beast shouts at her and she throws herself on top of a giant piece of stone so it can’t get to her.  She rains flames and sparks down from above, having to stop occasionally to build up her magic again.  The draugr walks around the stone, unable to attack her so she just keeps attacking it every time her magic builds back up.  Eventually, it falls to her magic.  She sighs once again, before looking down at the sword.  It would be so easy to kill it with the blade… </p><p>Trying to push thoughts of the Order out of her mind, she uses her lock picks to unlock the chest in the room.  It was slightly harder to unlock than the one earlier in the dungeon.  She takes a deep breath before stepping through the door to the next room.  She crouches down again and slowly goes through the pathway until she comes across a tunnel with more swinging axes.  She waits before dashing through them.  On the other side a draugr quickly attacks her as she shoots him with flames, finding that the flames work much better than the sparks.  </p><p>The room is large, and she can see two draugr’s standing on the pathway above her.  There is oil on the floor and she smiles, if only she could get them to come down here and then the oil and her flames could finish the job for her.  She slowly starts to sneak up the stairs but doesn’t make it far when both draugr see her and start to run down the stairs.  She inches back past the oil until she’s a safe distance away and holds out her palm with the flames shooting off of it.  Come on you fuckers…</p><p>Both draugr step onto the oil at the same time and she shoots a blast of fire at it.  Instantly, the oil is engulfed and the draugr burn quickly to ashes.  Proud of herself, Leytiri edges around them and starts up the stairs.  She makes her way across the pathway going to the next ledge and walks until she comes across an iron door.  She opens it slowly, listening for any of the strange noises the draugr made, but she hears nothing.  </p><p>She makes her way down a hall way where at the end is a door.  There are three pictures, a moth, an owl, and a bear.  Underneath them is three holes over a picture of a… claw.  Leytiri yanks the golden claw out of her bag and runs her fingers over the three pictures underneath the claw.  A bear, a moth, and an owl.  She turns the stone tablets until they show the same pictures on the claw before putting the claw into the holes and giving it a good turn.  </p><p>The door opens onto steps going upwards and Leytiri slides the claw back into her bag.  Whatever treasure is in here will help her get out of Skyrim, and she would give the claw back to the trader once she was done with it.  Once she had gone up the stairs she came out into a large cavern.  She could hear a weird noise in the back of her head, like music, but different.  She lifted herself out of her crouch, something weird was going on.  </p><p>A flurry of bats came down around her head and normally she might have shrieked or at the very least curled her lip up at them but she didn’t.  That noise…</p><p>She made her way across a bridge and up the stairs.  On the platform laid a tomb, a chest, and the stone wall behind them.  She stepped towards the wall and as she did the noise in her head grew louder and louder, screaming a strange song at her.  Suddenly the letter on the wall turned blue and the song in her head started to get garbled before something that looked like she imagined wind looked like rushed into her body.  </p><p>The tomb behind her burst open and a powerful looking draugr stands up.  Leytiri jumped to the platform next to the one she was on and ran up the stairs, knowing she would need the high ground for an enemy this powerful.  She mixes her destruction spells and launches them down upon the draugr.  It screams in rage but Leytiri keeps firing down upon it, periodically stopping to drink a magic potion to be able to keep it up.  </p><p>As the draugr starts to make its way up the stairs she forms her familiar and launches it her enemy.  Her familiar, a beautiful wolf, starts tearing the draugr to pieces as Leytiri’s fire and sparks surround it.  </p><p>Eventually, the draugr begins to crumble to pieces and falls silent.  The familiar looks at Leytiri before licking its paw as it disappears.  She smiles even though the familiar was already gone and makes her way over to the draugr body.  On it she finds a bunch of arrows, a few gold, a very nice looking sword, and the very heavy dragonstone that she was sent to find.  </p><p>Suddenly exhausted, Leytiri opens the chest and takes everything in it before making her way up the steps beside the platform.  She follows the path until she finds a switch and it opens up a hole in the wall.  She comes upon another chest, where she finds some gold, lock picks, and steel armor.  To her left Leytiri can see sunlight and she walks towards it until she steps out of the cave onto a cliff on the side of the mountain.  </p><p>She looks down and sighs deeply.  It’s a long way down, she’d better get started, the sooner she gets to Whiterun, the better.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. The calm before the storm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leytiri smiled as soon she walked through the gates of Whiterun.  She could call this quiet little place home, if she so chose to.  She looks down at her clean clothes.  Alvor’s wife had kindly offered to wash her clothing when she stopped in at Riverwood to give the golden claw back to the trader.  Leytiri had thoroughly enjoyed her bath at Alvor’s house.  She probably looked a mess when she got there.  </p><p>Her hair had been full of spiderwebs and her armor was stained red with the blood from the bandits.  And she didn’t even want to think about what the draugr left on her.  </p><p>Before today she had only ever fought them once before, when she had begged and begged Prentis to take her on a quick mission to some abandoned mine near Markarth.  He had killed most of the draugr but one of them got around him and Leytiri was forced to kill it.  She tried to hide her horror from Prentis, not wanting him to think her weak, but he put his arm around her and comforted her.  Telling her that it wasn’t alive, and that she had fought to protect him as he fought to protect her.  </p><p>Leytiri swallows hard, trying to push away thoughts of Prentis.  He had wanted to come with her when she was kicked out of the Order.  But the Zyon had put his foot down, saying that Prentis was needed there and Prentis had bowed to the Zyon’s will.  Leytiri couldn’t fault him, she would have done the same.  Though she did miss the man who had raised her, she had never called him father out loud but in her mind he was the only father she had ever known.  </p><p>She followed the steps up to the castle, passing only a few people in the streets.  It is quite late, she realizes, and wonders if the court mage would even be awake.  If he isn’t she’ll just leave the dragonstone in his study, her part in this tale would soon be over and she could find a place to stay.  </p><p>Determined to start her new future, she grabs the handle to the door to the castle and opens it.  As Leytiri climbs the stairs she can hear Farengar talking to someone in her study.  When she walks in she sees a woman standing at the desk next to the mage.  She leans against the doorway, trying not to listen to what the two are talking about.  </p><p>Farengar finally seems to notice Leytiri.  “Ah!  The Jarl’s protege.”  Leytiri raises her brow, protege?  She wouldn’t go that far.  “I suppose you didn’t die in Bleak Falls Barrow huh?”   </p><p>Suppressing a snort, Leytiri nods.  “I found your stone, it was on a draugr in the temple.  So what happens next?”  </p><p>Farengar runs his fingertips along the dragonstone, reverence evident in his voice.  “My job begins.  Meet my friend here, she is the one who told me of the dragonstones location.  Though she has withheld how she found out that information.”  </p><p>The woman, hooded, looks towards Leytiri.  “You went into Bleak Falls Barrow?  I must admit that is impressive.”  </p><p>Before she can say anything more the Dark Elf, Leytiri thinks her name is Irileth, runs into the room shouting Farengar’s name.  “A dragon has been seen nearby, come with me.”  She looks at Leytiri.  “You.  You come as well.”  </p><p>Leytiri gulps.  She had seen enough of dragons at Helgen thank you!  But she couldn’t ignore the command of someone who worked for the Jarl, no matter how frightened she was.  Farengar on the other hand seemed absolutely delighted about the dragon sighting as he raced out of the room after Irileth.  Leytiri follows at a much slower pace.  </p><p>Instead of heading towards the door the two of them make their way up the stairs to the second floor and Leytiri follows.  At the top of the stairs the Jarl is asking a soldier about the dragon.  </p><p>The soldier, young but trying to sound brave, says that it came from the south.  “It was… it was fast, Jarl.”</p><p>Balgruuf narrows his eyes at the soldier.  “Is it attacking the watchtower?”  </p><p>The soldier shakes his head.  “No, it was just circling overhead.  I ran for my life.”  </p><p>Balgruuf nods.  “Good job, go down and get some food and rest, we will take care of it now.  Irileth you need to get men and go down there!”  </p><p>Irileth bows her head to her Jarl.  “I’ve ordered my men down there already.  We are prepared to fight.”  She starts back down the stairs.  </p><p>Balgruuf turns towards Leytiri.  “I must ask you one more favor, friend.  You were at Helgen, you have more experience with those beasts than any of us do.  I need you to help fight that thing.  As a token of my appreciation I will allow you to buy a house in the city and I will give you a person item from my own armory.  Now go, follow Irileth.”  </p><p>Leytiri doesn’t wait to hear what Farengar says to Balgruuf before she rushes down the stairs after Irileth.  Her blood pounds in her ears and she is certain if she opens her mouth she will spew the contents over her stomach all over the floor.  Rummaging around a disgusting dungeon to find some ancient artifact for the Jarl was one thing, but actually fighting a dragon?!  Are these people insane?  The soldiers at Helgen couldn’t do anything against the bloody dragon there!</p><p>In a daze, Leytiri rushes with Irileth down to the gates.  Far too soon, they get to them where four soldiers stand waiting.  When Irileth says that there’s a dragon outside all of the men look at each other, bewildered and frightened.  Irileth stands straighter.  “You heard me right, there’s a dragon out there, and we’re going to fight it.  That thing made a mistake coming to Whiterun today.”</p><p>One of the soldiers clears his throat.  “But… how can we fight a dragon?”  </p><p>Irileth closes her eyes for a moment before setting them upon the soldier who spoke.  “I don’t know, we have never fought one before, let alone seen one.  But that beast is threatening our families!  Our homes!  Will you Nords make me face this beast alone?!”</p><p>All of the soldiers shout firm no’s.  But the last one on the end whispers, “we are so dead…”  </p><p>Irileth steps back and forth in front of the men.  “Shall we go kill us a dragon?!”  </p><p>All of the soldiers shout yes and they charge with Irileth towards the gates.  Leytiri watches them and, though frightened, she pulls her helmet down upon her head and charges through the gates with them.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I was going to do the dragon attack on Whiterun's watchtower as well in this chapter but it was getting kind of long and I want to spend a good amount of time on Leytiri's emotions about what happens during the dragon attack.  Hopefully I can get the next chapter out within the next couple days, I hope you guys liked this one.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. The Dragonborn Comes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter will be the battle between Leytiri and her first dragon.  Warnings include a little bit of strong language and some violence.  I hope you all enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leytiri’s heart pounded in her chest as she followed Irileth and the soldiers out of the gates of Whiterun.  The little girl in her wanted to flee back to the castle and hide until the dragon went away.  Hell, the grown woman in her wanted to run and hide.  When the dragon attacked Helgen she did run, she would never forget the utter fear she had felt as the dragon rained fire down upon them all.  But she supposed there was one thing to be grateful to the dragon for, it had attacked just a few seconds before her execution.  </p><p>Irileth, Leytiri, and the four soldiers race down the road towards a building Leytiri can see in the distance.  Her eyes scan the skies, waiting to see a hint of black, but finding nothing.  The little girl in her hopes that the dragon got tired of its destruction and flew away but she wasn’t so sure about that.  The dragon had done real damage to Helgen, why would it not do the same thing to Whiterun?  </p><p>As they get closer to the watchtower Leytiri can see smoke rising from the damaged building.  She hoped that there hadn’t been many people in there when the dragon attacked, she couldn’t imagine that many survived the dragon fire.  Her fingers once again closed around the hilt of her sword.  The sword wouldn’t be much use against a dragon, but would her magic do anything against it either?  She only knew how to conjure a couple things, a familiar and a draugr and neither of them would be able to reach the dragon if it stayed in the air.  </p><p>She had her flames and sparks but would fire really work against a dragon?  Could her spells even reach the dragon in the air?  Her fingers stroke the bow slung across her shoulder.  Could she… could she use the bow?  The dragon isn’t human…</p><p>Irileth suddenly stops, not to far from the tower.  “No signs of the dragon, but clearly he was here.”  She points to the watchtower, smoke rising.  “It looks bad, but we need to find out what is going on.  And the dragon may be lurking out there as we speak.  Look for survivors.”  </p><p>The men pull their swords from their scabbards and slowly start down the path towards the watchtower.  Leytiri follows behind Irileth and two of the soldiers, keeping her eyes on the skies, waiting to see a wing or fire or anything.  As she climbs the damaged pathway into the watchtower a soldier runs out.  “No!  That beast is still here.  Two of my men made a run for Whiterun and the dragon took them.”  </p><p>Irileth steps up and grabs the man by his shoulder.  “Where is the dragon?”  </p><p>The man looks up towards the sky.  “I don’t know.  I-oh no!  Here it comes again!”  </p><p>Irileth faces Leytiri and the rest of the men.  “He’s coming!  Make every fucking arrow count!”  </p><p>Leytiri throws herself back to the ground and turns in the direction of the watchtower just as the dragon flies over the mountain towards them, roaring.  The dragon… it’s not black!  There is more than just the one from Helgen!  Leytiri crouches down behind what is left of the stone bridge and tries to force down the vomit that is threatening to come up.  What if the second dragon attacks?  They are so unbelievably fucked.  </p><p>Forcing herself out from her hiding place she watches as the dragon lands.  Now!  Leytiri yanks the sword from her scabbard and dashes at the dragon, hacking and slashing at the dragons backside.  Leytiri had never wielded a sword before, and had no idea how to use one, she just knew that she was supposed to stab with it and so she did.  The metal felt foreign in her hand, unnatural. </p><p>The dragon, barely phased by her blade, launched itself into the air and Leytiri was knocked to the ground by the force of the beasts wings.  It circles in the air, blasting fire down upon the others and that’s when Leytiri hears it.  A voice, in the back of her mind, similar to the musical voices she had heard in Bleak Falls Barrow.  A small part of her thinks it’s the dragon, speaking to her, but she pushes that thought away, that is insanity.  </p><p>Leytiri throws herself behind the stone bridge again as the dragon lands.  She yanks her bow off of her shoulder and starts firing arrow after arrow at the beast as Irileth and the others hack at it with their swords, one of the soldiers even sending blue sparks at it in-between blows.  Leytiri is unsure if her arrows are even hitting the dragon, having never fired a bow before, but she doesn’t care.  The second after each arrow flies she reaches for another one, until her meager supply is gone.  </p><p>She grips her sword again and, after sending up an apology to the heavens for using a weapon, launches herself towards the dragon.  Irileth and the soldiers surround the beast and Leytiri, dodging the tail, starts slashing at it from behind.  The dragon thumps down its tail, it roars, and it rains down fire but it as if the six of them are immune.  Whiterun will die if they die!  </p><p>Leytiri grips the sword with two hands, swings it up over her head, and brings it down with all of her might and slams it into the dragons back.  The dragon roars and in her mind she hears a scream, “Dovahkiin!  No!”  Leytiri clamps her hands down up her head and cries out as the dragon falls, lifeless, to the ground.  Was that him?  Did she hear his last words in his language?  But that’s impossible.  Madness, Leytiri is going mad, surely.  How else could she explain hearing those words?  </p><p>Suddenly, the body of the dragon begins to glow a beautiful, fiery shade of gold.  Something that looks like the wind shoots towards Leytiri and engulfs into her very being.  She cries out as a warm, presence enters her body and suddenly she feels more than sees a name before her, Mirmulnir.  Mirmulnir is the name of the dragon she just killed!  And… his soul… </p><p>A soldier grabs her by the shoulder.  “You’re… you’re a Dragonborn aren’t you?”  </p><p>Leytiri grips her head, trying to come to terms with the fact that she and the dragon… melded?  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.  What the fuck is a Dragonborn?”  </p><p>She immediately regretted her curse, it wasn’t his fault what happened to her.  But the man doesn’t seem phased by it.  “The Dragonborn of old used to fight dragons, and steal their souls.  That’s what happened here today, you took that dragons soul after it died.  Have you ever learned how to Shout?”  </p><p>Leytiri assumed he meant something… more than throwing her head back and shouting like a child.  She shook her head.  “No.  I don’t know what you mean.”</p><p>He pointed in the direction of the mountain.  “Dragonborn can Shout without being trained.  Try to shout, you will have learned how from stealing that dragons soul.”  </p><p>The other soldiers and Irileth surround Leytiri and, feeling silly, she faces the mountain.  In her mind she could hear a voice, Mirmulnir, telling her to form the dragon word for Force in her mind and just… Shout.  Leytiri opens her mouth to speak and suddenly, a raw, powerful, blue force comes screaming from her mouth and she watches as a tree not far in front of her tilts and sways in the air as the force hits it.  </p><p>All of the soldiers cry out in shock and one of them grabs at her shoulder.  “Now that’s a Shout!  The old tales tell of a Dragonborn who could steal power from the dragons after they killed them.  You must be one!”  </p><p>One of them turns towards Irileth, asking her what she thinks about this.  Leytiri tries to block them all out.  Somehow, she knew that there was no way she was leaving Skyrim now.  Not now that she was… a Dragonborn? </p><p>Irileth looks at Leytiri and she tries to clear her mind.  “I don’t care about some mythical person from eons past that may or may not be here now.  You killed a dragon and that’s more than enough for me, you should go speak to the Jarl.”  </p><p>Leytiri finds her voice.  “I didn’t kill the beast on my own, you all helped.”  </p><p>Irileth raises her brow.  “But you dealt the final blow against it.  And you sucked its soul into your body as easily as you could suck a bowl of noodles in through your mouth.  Go to the Jarl and inform him what happened, now.”  </p><p>Knowing that she is being dismissed Leytiri slowly starts the walk back to Whiterun, picking flowers as she goes along.  What is a Dragonborn?  How in the hell is she one?  What is going to happen to her now?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. The call of the Greybeards</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The only warning for this chapter is a little bit of strong language.  I was going to finish this chapter when Leytiri went to bed but I thought it would be very fitting if we got to see Prentis again and his reaction to Leytiri becoming the Dragonborn.  I hope you all like this chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leytiri sat in the inn, staring into her bowl of soup.  She hadn’t made it far from the watchtower before she heard a powerful voice on the wind, shouting “Dovahkiin”.    Dragonborn.  It had scared the life out of her and her first instinct was to rush to the castle and hide.  She didn’t of course, but as she looked towards one of the mountains she felt a chill run up her spine.  She wanted so bad to ignore that call.  She wanted to go back to the Order.  </p><p>She wanted to be a child and play with Prentis again.  She wanted her mama to braid her hair and sing her songs.  Prentis had tried, oh he tried so hard to sing for her but he truly did not have the talents of a bard.  She wanted to become a master of illusion magic and she wanted to take care of Prentis until he died.  She wanted to stroke his blonde hair that was slowly turning gray.  She wanted to look into his blue eyes and tell him she missed him.  </p><p>She did not want to be the Dragonborn.  She did not want to go on some insane quest to go meet the Greybeards.  </p><p>But of course that had not mattered when she went before Jarl Balgruuf.  After she told him what had happened at the watchtower he said that she used her Thu’um or Shout against the dragon.  Apparently it took normal people years to learn the most basic Shouts but a Dragonborn could do them easily.  He had then told her that when the voice shouting down from the largest mountain in Skyrim called out “Dovahkiin” that it was a summons for her to come to the mountain and speak with the Greybeards.  </p><p>It is fate, he said.  </p><p>The Jarl’s advisors had argued back and forth over whether or not she truly was a Dragonborn, but Leytiri felt numb throughout the whole conversation.  That was it, she wasn’t leaving Skyrim.  She couldn’t ignore the summons of the Greybeards.  They could literally shout from the mountains for her to come see them for fucks sake.  She couldn’t hide from them in Skyrim.  </p><p>The Jarl had looked at her and said, “if they think you are Dragonborn, who are we to argue?”  </p><p>Leytiri wished that she could argue, but she couldn’t.  If she had not killed the dragon, if she had not seen the dragon shoot into her body, if she had not felt the whispers of the dragons soul in her heart… then maybe she could have argued.  But she had felt all of those things.  She could not escape what was happening to her now.  </p><p>The Jarl had named her a Thane of the city, before he told her to go to High Hrothgar immediately and that she could not refuse the summons.  He had said that it was a seven thousand step journey to the castle and that he envied her.  She wanted to tell him that if envied her so much maybe he should take the journey but she kept her mouth shut.  It was not his fault that this happened to her.  </p><p>But Leytiri decided that she would not leave immediately, it was dark, and dangerous trekking through Skyrim at night.  She would have one last night of good sleep in a bed, at the inn, and then she would set out in the morning.  Leytiri tilts the bowl against her lips and lets the dregs of the soup pour down her throat.  She gets up and lays down in the bed.  </p><p>Her eyes drift over to her bow and sword, both leaning against the wall.  All those years training in the Order and it all was thrown out the window when her life was in danger.  She didn’t even consider the repercussions of using the blade, using the bow, she didn’t even think about the Order much.  She had reacted.  She had wanted to live.  So she used the weapons.  Now though, now she felt guilty.</p><p>Prentis… Prentis would be so upset with her right now.  He would ask her why she didn’t conjure a familiar.  He would ask her why she didn’t throw a destruction spell at the beast.  He would ask her why, if she knew that she might lose the fight, she didn’t turn herself invisible and run away.  Did she have to use the weapons?  </p><p>Leytiri swallows hard.  Maybe, maybe not.  She was frightened and she used a weapon, just like she did at the Order with Tovarr.  She didn’t want to die and she was frightened so she reacted.  She just hopes that next time, she’ll hold true to her vows.  She closes her eyes.<br/>
<br/>
Many miles away, Prentis sits in the Zyon’s office, starring into the fire with a glass of strong ale in his hand.  He hadn’t felt right ever since Leytiri left the Order.  That morning he packed his bags, dragged them to the gates, and waited for Leytiri.  He had every intention of going with her.  But the Zyon told him it was necessary for him to stay in the Order and, like always, he bowed to the Zyon’s will.  </p><p>Now, he wished that he told the Zyon to go fuck himself.  Leytiri was every bit his little girl.  He should be out there, protecting her, but instead he is sitting here staring into a fire, drinking ale.  </p><p>It’s been less than a week since Arella came back to the order, ashen faced, with Clavicus, who could barely hold back tears.  They came across Leytiri unexpectedly in Falkreath and when they tried to call out to her she ran south.  Soldiers followed her and… now he doesn’t know if she’s even alive or dead.  Prentis closes his eyes.  Grief floods his mind and heart.  </p><p>He failed Leytiri’s mother.  He failed.  </p><p>The door opens and the Zyon walks in.  “Prentis, did you hear the summons?”  </p><p>Prentis rises from his seat, trying to make his face look neutral.  “The summons from the Greybeards for the Dragonborn?  Yes, I heard.  I’m not sure I believe that there really is a Dragonborn but I did hear.”  </p><p>The Zyon runs his hands along his desk before he reaches up to push his hood off of his head.  A rare sight, Prentis had only ever seen the Zyon without his hood a handful of times in all of his years in the Order.  The man is old, at least thirty years older than Prentis, but he wouldn’t doubt that the Zyon is more powerful than him, more powerful than anyone he’d ever met in fact.</p><p>The Zyon stares at Prentis for a few minutes in silence before he picks up his own glass from the desk.  “It is true that the Dragonborn has been summoned and it is true that the Dragonborn is real.  She killed a dragon near Whiterun with relative ease from what I’ve heard.  She will be on her way to do business with the Greybeards soon enough.”</p><p>Prentis slides a fingertip around and around the lip of his glass.  “I wish her luck, the girl.  I do not envy the battles that she will have to face.  When I was a boy I heard that the Dragonborn have the soul and blood of the dragon and that they only come to this world in times of the greatest need.”  </p><p>The Zyon nods absentmindedly, continuing the stroke his desk with the hand not holding the glass.  For the first time Prentis realizes that the Zyon’s hand holding the glass is shaking.  “Are you alright, my Zyon?”  </p><p>The man jerks his head though Prentis can’t decide what answer he gave, yes or no.  “Perhaps if you tell me what concerns you, I can help.”  </p><p>Their eyes meet and the Zyon nods again.  “Perhaps you can.  Prentis, I called you here tonight because I have discovered the name of the Dragonborn.”  </p><p>Prentis raises his eyebrow.  “Do you wish to help her on whatever quest she must face?  You know that is not our way, but I will not argue if it is what you want.”  </p><p>The Zyon jerks his head so hard Prentis fears that it might tumble off his neck.  “No!  We can not help her.  Prentis, the Dragonborn is Leytiri.”  </p><p>Prentis clamps his hand down across his mouth to keep the ale from surging up his throat.  No.  No!  Why must the gods be this cruel to her?  Had they not done enough!?  </p><p>But the Zyon is clearly not done.  “Prentis, prepare yourself for this.”  </p><p>As a child, Prentis would cover his ears when his mother told him something he didn’t want to hear and suddenly he felt the urge to do it now.  “What else is there to say, Zyon?”  </p><p>The man closes his eyes, covering the pain in them or, who knows what else.  He opens them again.  “I’ve been informed that Leytiri did not use magic to kill the dragon.  She used a sword, and a bow.  She has completely forsaken our way of life in the matter of a week.”  </p><p>Prentis squeezes the bridge of his nose.  “She-she has never been good at destruction magic, you know that.  She must have been frightened for fucks sake.  What would any of us have done in that situation!?”  </p><p>The Zyon raises his eyebrow.  “Are you telling me that you would have resorted to the barbaric practice of wielding a weapon created by man?  Remember your place here, Prentis.  She was a failure, and that is all she will ever be.  Leave me, now.”  </p><p>Prentis turns on his heel and walks to the door but when he gets there he stops and bows his head.  “I’m sorry, my Zyon, for raising my voice at you.  You’re right, of course.  She was never meant for the Order.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. The Road to Ivarstead</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings for this chapter include mild violence and language.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leytiri trudged along the road to Ivarstead, picking flowers as she made her away along the stone path.  She couldn’t believe how much money she had made by making ingredients and selling them!  At least 1,500 septims jiggled in her purse.  It shouldn’t take too much longer before she can buy a house.  Whiterun wasn’t bad, the people seemed friendly enough and the house for sale there looks nice.  She saw no reason that she couldn’t grow old there.  </p><p>Dragonborn.  </p><p>She stops walking for just a few seconds before starting up again.  Her mother told her stories about the Dragonborn when she was a child, most parents do.  But they were legends, stories to tell excited like children.  They weren’t real.  But how else had she killed a dragon?  She had help, of course, but it was she who dealt the final blow, killing the beast.  Before the fight she fully expected that all of them would die but somehow, all of them had lived.  But what did being Dragonborn mean for her?  </p><p>What would she have to do?  What would the Greybeards make her do?  </p><p>Leytiri took a deep breath of the morning air.  So far this morning she had been attacked by two wolves, one giving her a amethyst and the other nothing.  Even more interestingly she came upon two bandits who were attacking a bard.  She bought a book from Farengar in Whiterun about how to conjure a flame atronach and it quickly killed the two of them.  She quite liked the spell, it was more powerful than her familiar.  But she didn’t like how it drained almost all of her magic.  She would have to be careful and not use up all of it in battle.  </p><p>Then she came across a troop of Stormcloak soldiers.  One of them told her that either she was a true daughter of Skyrim or she wasn’t, and that they would rid Skyrim of elves and the Jarls that supported Torygg.  It had taken everything in her not to laugh at the man.  She, an elf, stood before him and he said that he wanted to get rid of people like her.  Why in the world would she join a group of people that wanted to remove people like her from Skyrim?  </p><p>Leytiri is a daughter of Skyrim.  She was born in this country.  She has just as much right to the place as that bigoted piece of shit and Ulfric have.  The Legion may not be the best choice for Skyrim but they damn sure were a better choice than the Stormcloaks.  At least the Legion doesn’t care what you look like.  </p><p>As she crosses a bridge, an Orc suddenly dashes out from some bushes brandishing an axe.  Without thinking, Leytiri throws out her hand and conjures up a flame atronach which begins firing fireballs at the Orc while Leytiri, using the last bit of magic she has left, hits her with some sparks.  The Orc falls to the ground screaming and Leytiri, not wanting the woman to suffer, uses a dagger to slit her throat.  Leytiri looks at the blood on the blade.  </p><p>She did it again.  She thought it would be cruel to let the woman die slowly and painfully from the magic so she used a blade to end the pain.  The Zyon would hate her, they all would hate her.  Prentis would hate her…</p><p>Leytiri shakes her head roughly.  No!  No he wouldn’t, he would understand.  He was never cruel, he would never allow someone to die painfully.  He was good. </p><p>Trying to banish Prentis from her thoughts, Leytiri comes upon a sign that points in the direction of Ivarstead.  Before she can make it more than a few feet however, two robed men race towards her, hands raised.  One of them shoots ice at her and she re-conjures her atronach.  The flames hit one of the men as Leytiri quickly stabs at him with the sword she got from Helgen.  Then, as one, they turn to the second and quickly kill him together.  </p><p>Leytiri should hate herself, she should.  She could have let the men die slowly and painfully from the magic but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.  If it were her she would hope the person killing her would do so quickly so she wouldn’t suffer.  She wished like hell that these people wouldn’t attack her because they’d be alive now if it weren’t for that.  </p><p>In front of her stands a long bridge, and Leytiri can see a wolf pacing on the other side.  She sighs and reaches into her bag to grab a magic potion and downs it before racing across the bridge.  Rather than wasting the magic, she uses her sword to quickly kill the beast.  “Hey!”  </p><p>Twisting around, Leytiri sees an Argonian racing across the bridge behind her.  Thanking her lucky stars for not wasting the magic from the potion she throws out another atronach.  The two of them attack the man and kill him quickly.  When she kneels down to search him she finds quite a few ingredients and a couple potions along with a nice amount of septims.  She pockets all of it before standing to walk back in the direction of the town.  </p><p>It doesn’t take too much longer before Leytiri comes across a bridge leading towards a bunch of buildings.  She sighs, thank the gods.  She’s finally here.  She had expected to fight a bandit or two but wasn’t expecting all of the wolves, the mages, the bandits, and the Orc and the Argonian.  Right now she could do with a stiff drink and a place to sleep for the night before she goes to meet with the Greybeards.  </p><p>Something told her she’d have to climb up the entire fucking mountain to meet them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. A Lonely Mountain Trek</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings for this chapter include mild violence and some language.  Be sure to look at the notes at the bottom of the chapter (sorry it's so long), I have a question for anyone interested.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Seven thousand steps.  Seven.  Thousand.  Steps.  </p>
<p>Leytiri tore a hunk off of her bread and chewed it vigorously.  A woman sat next to her, praying at the emblem.  It is the fourth one, when Leytiri had asked how many more emblems there are before she would get to meet the Greybeards she was only met with a stony silence.  The woman then asked her what she wanted, and even called her a little elf.  Rather than shoot back the words that she so desperately wanted to say, she had offered the woman half of her loaf of bread.  Now they ate in silence. Little elf, she didn’t mind it.  She didn’t think it was an insult.   </p>
<p>The wind and snow swirled around Leytiri and she pressed her back against the emblem in an attempt to get away from the cold and wet.  It is late, the sun had fallen from the skies ages ago.  She enjoyed her bed at the inn so much that she overslept and didn’t even leave Ivarstead until early afternoon.  She now wished dearly that she just got her ass out of bed.  </p>
<p>Seven fucking thousand steps.  </p>
<p>She hadn’t even made it out of Ivarstead and all the way past the bridge before she was attacked by a huge spider and, even more horrifying, a huge, black bear.  Her flame atronach had killed the spider quickly but oh boy did it barely do anything against the bear.  She had tried to use her new Dovahkiin ability on the bear but it barely stopped it.  </p>
<p>Embarrassed and frightened, she had ran back across the bridge calling for help.  Three guards and even two civilians came to her aid and killed the bear while she cowered.  The bread gets stuck in Leytiri’s throat and she swallows hard, trying not to cry.  She bet after the Greybeards witnessed that they would find a new Dragonborn to help them.  If she ran away from a bear what kind of use would she be against dragons?</p>
<p>Leytiri pulls her water skin out of her bag and tags a long pull on it before offering it to the woman, who shakes her head.  After she got over her shakiness, and against the advice of the guards, she started up the mountain.  At first it was fun, she counted out the steps as she climbed higher and higher.  She faced two ice wolves on the way but they easily fell to her atronach.  But when she got about five hundred steps up they lost their thrill.  Now all she wanted was to get to the top and she prayed that the Greybeards had a roaring fireplace, hot food, and a comfy bed.  </p>
<p>Right now she would give anything to be back home, safe, in her bed at the Order.  </p>
<p>Gritting her teeth, Leytiri wipes the crumbs off of her face.  “Thank you for sharing my meal with me, it gets lonely out here.”  </p>
<p>The woman nods.  “I make this trip every few years or so.  I like the solitude.”  </p>
<p>“Me as well.”  It wasn’t necessarily true, she liked being with Prentis and she liked having someone to share a bed with.  But other than that she did prefer to be alone.  Leytiri turns towards the stairs.  “Goodbye then.” </p>
<p>She climbs the steps slowly, trying to avoid getting knocked over by the fierce wind.  She climbs straight up it feels like, her calves and thighs screaming at her.  She didn’t like to run, and had never been very physically active other than the exercises that Prentis made her do a few times a week.  Suddenly a roar fills the air and she looks out to the right off the mountain.  A dragon here?!</p>
<p>The roar sounds again and she turns back to see an ice troll standing on top of a cliff high above her.  It throws itself to the ground behind her and she sends a flame atronach at it as she runs forward.  She doesn’t look back to see if the atronach is winning the fight or not, she knows a battle that she could not win and she was no match against that troll.  </p>
<p>Leytiri runs until she feels like her heart is going to come out of her throat.  She slows but not much, wanting to put as much distance between herself and that troll.  Not too far ahead of her she sees another emblem and she walks up to it.  On the emblem it says that it’s number six.  She must have missed the fifth one at some point.  </p>
<p>Rubbing her arms, she keeps walking along the stairs.  Light armor maybe was a mistake coming up here.  She doubted that she would be able to move around well in heavy armor but at least it would provide her some warmth.  And besides, she didn’t need to be able to move around well for using magic.  Well, unless she was running from the thing she’s supposed to be fighting.  </p>
<p>Her teeth start to chatter and she tries to clamp her jaws closed.  She sure was proving to be a right good sight for the Greybeards wasn’t she?  Not only had she ran from a bear, she also ran from a troll.  She had even begged civilians for aid against the bear.  They had fussed over her afterwards, asking if she needed to lay down or needed food.  They were completely shocked when she said that she needed to climb the stairs.  It was clear that they didn’t think she’d make it and even tried to stop her on her way back out of town.  </p>
<p>As Leytiri rounds a corner she sees a castle ahead of her and she almost whoops for joy but restrains herself.  She already looks pretty bad in their eyes, she ran from a bear and cried about it before she ran, again, from a troll.  Slowly she makes her way up the stairs until she comes to a platform where a chest and bundles of food and potions lie.  </p>
<p>At the bottom, a man had asked her if she could deliver a package of supplies to the Greybeards and since she was on her way here she agreed.  Leytiri lifts the lid of the chest and drops a bag of food and other supplies into it before closing it and making sure it clicks.  She looks towards the door.  </p>
<p>Her feet move up a stair and stops.  Up another and stops.  She didn’t know what they wanted with her.  She had only been able to kill the dragon at Whiterun with help, and later went on to run from a bear and a troll.  She couldn’t be this hero, this Dragonborn, she couldn’t.  What had she done to deserve this other than be a coward who breaks her oaths out of fear of death?  Tovarr… she shouldn’t have killed him.  She’d be safe, home, and wouldn’t be the Dragonborn today if she hadn’t done it.  </p>
<p>Seven thousand fucking steps.  </p>
<p>Leytiri puts her hand on the door and pushes it open.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hi guys!  I hoped you enjoyed Leytiri as she battled the icy trek up to go see the Greybeards.  What I am offering now for my readers is a chance to give me ideas as far as, ahem, Leytiri's love life.  I have her future hubby narrowed down to two people (one you can romance in the game and one you can't without DLC).  I love them both so much I just can't decide yet who she'll ultimately wind up with.  </p>
<p>But I do want her to have a number of lovers before she falls in love and gets married.  Leytiri does have a healthy sexual appetite, as you may have noticed in the first couple chapters.  Also, her falling into bed with other men is a form of Leytiri taking back her life and control after what happened with Tovarr, it may not be the healthiest thing for her but it is what she desperately needs.  I'm not sure how many lovers she will have, and it won't necessarily be strictly male lovers either, but I do want her to go to bed with at least a couple people before she ultimately falls in love with... whichever of the two guys I finally land on.  </p>
<p>What I am asking for now is if anyone has any suggestions on who Leytiri should spend a night or two with leave a name in a comment here.  I don't mind if it's someone you can or can't romance in game or not, married or not, whatever.  Jarl, priest, begger, I'll consider them all before I ultimately decide who would be best suited for Leytiri in her state of mind right now.</p>
<p>Sorry for such a long note, I hope you all enjoyed!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. The Second Trial</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings for this chapter include a couple curse words.  Leytiri meets the Greybeards this chapter and for the next one we will be on to Ustengrav!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As soon as Leytiri closes the door behind her she notices fires burning in braziers in the room before her.  She longs to go and stand in front of them, to warm her cold bones but she refrains.  A man wearing hooded robes walks down some stairs and walks in her direction.  She knows that she should move forward to meet him but she doesn’t know anything about the Greybeards, and knows she should stay near the door so that she can run if need be.  </p><p>The man stops suddenly and Leytiri notices two more robed and hooded men step into the room next to him.  All three stare in her direction and she realizes that she needs to move into the room to meet them.  She takes one last, longing look at the door behind her and steps into the room.  Hopefully she doesn’t have to fight, her last atronach wore her out.  </p><p>When she steps closer to the braziers the first man moves in front of her.  “So, the Dragonborn appears.  After so long.”  </p><p>Leytiri swallows and nods.  “The Jarl of Whiterun told me to come here to meet with you.  Am I really the Dragonborn?”</p><p>The man raises his eyebrow.  “We shall see.  Show us your Voice, Dragonborn.  Give us a taste of it.”  </p><p>Leytiri turns away from the Greybeards and prepares to use her Voice again, like she did outside of Whiterun for the soldiers, but the man snaps his fingers.  “No!  Strike us with it.  You won’t hurt us, just do it.”  </p><p>Hesitating for just a moment but finally she turns back towards the man and Shouts at him, using the ability she had learned from the dragon she killed at Whiterun.  Two of the men are thrown back and nearly lose their balance, the third, out of her range, merely stares at her with his mouth slightly agape.  </p><p>All three men tilt their heads down in a bow to her before the one who spoke approaches her again.  “You are the Dragonborn.  Welcome.”  His voice before had seemed almost doubtful, now it is full of reverence.  “Welcome to High Hrothgar.  I am Master Arngeir, I speak for the Greybeards.  But why have you come?”</p><p>Leytiri hesitates again as two more Greybeards step into the room, having heard her Shout.  “You summoned me, Master.  I was in Whiterun and the Jarl told me that I must come see you, that destiny demands it.  But I do have a question.”  </p><p>Arngeir smiles and approaches the large brazier, standing between two of the other monks.  “The Greybeards are always honored to host the Dragonborn, and shall answer all the questions that you have.  Speak them.”  </p><p>She nods before holding her hands out towards the fire closest to her, unable to resist the pull of the heat any longer.  “Am I the only Dragonborn alive?  Are the others just stories to tell children, just legends?  Am I the first real one?”  </p><p>One of the monks next to Arngeir smiles but it is not him who speaks.  “You are not the first Dragonborn, there were more who came before you.  Dragonborn come to this world in the most direst of need.  Who is to say how many came before you, who is to say how many will come after you, and who is to say if you are the only one alive right now or not.  What matters is that you are the Dragonborn and you have been called to serve your purpose.”  </p><p>Leytiri feels a lump in her throat and tries to ignore it.  No matter how hard she tried she would never be an ordinary girl.  “What is my purpose?  What is my destiny?”  </p><p>Arngeir lifts his hand towards his brazier, imitating Leytiri.  “I do not know, it is not my duty to know what your destiny is.  My duty is to teach you the way of the Voice.  As it is for them.”  The other men bow their heads towards Leytiri once again.  </p><p>“When you Shout, you speak in the language of dragons.  As the Dragonborn, you have dragon blood running through your veins and that makes it easy for you to learn the Words of Power, and thus new Shouts.”  Arngeir turns to stare at her.  “All shouts have three Words of Power, if you know all three the more powerful they will become.  Master Einarth will teach you the second word for the Shout you already know, Unrelenting Force.”  </p><p>Einarth steps forward, looks down at the ground, and sort of whisper shouts the word, “Ro”.  Cracks form in the floor and Leytiri can see red, shiny letters.  She steps forward and suddenly the word ‘Balance’ forms in her mind.  She stumbles slightly and Arngeir grabs her shoulder to straighten her.  </p><p>He smiles a small smile, like Prentis, and she suddenly wants to hug him and bury her head into his chest, and never let him go.  “You truly are a master, Leytiri.  The rest of us learn Shouts through practice, vigorous, almost non ending practice.  But because you are a Dragonborn, you can take the souls of a dragon and learn words that way.  Now, use your improved Shout to defeat these three targets.”  </p><p>Suddenly, a glowing blue figure wearing robes stands in front of her and, without thinking, she unleashes her full power against it.  The force is strong enough to send all of the Greybeards stumbling back but instead of getting angry at her, Arngeir laughs.  “Again!”</p><p>Another glowing figure arrives and Leytiri Shouts at him again.  This time, the Greybeards don’t stumble back but appear to be awed by her ability.   “You learn quickly, girl.  Last time.”  </p><p>One last figure appears and Leytiri uses her Shout again, and she realizes that it has gotten stronger and stronger each time, knocking the Greybeards back more and more.  Arngeir steps towards her again.  “Your Thu’um is… marvelous.  You truly are the Dragonborn, it would take a normal person years to be as good as you are.  Your next trial will be held outside, follow Master Borri.”  </p><p>Leytiri looks longingly at the braziers again but rather than complain she follows the Greybeard that starts up the stairs.  Gods does she not want to go outside.  Even behind the thick castle walls she could still hear the wind roar.  </p><p>As they all step outside Leytiri rubs her arms, almost immediately feeling the chill of the wind and snow and ice.  Arngeir seems not to notice her discomfort and he Shouts.  It is a strange noise, and she wonders if that is how she sounds when she does it.  “Now, Leytiri.  Master Borri will teach you a new Shout.”</p><p>Borri whisper shouts at the ground and letters appear like they did inside.  Without needing to be told Leytiri approaches them again and feels the same intense feeling inside of her that she felt after learning the last Shout.  ‘Whirlwind’ whispers in her mind.  </p><p>Arngeir steps towards a gate and two pillars before it and she follows him.  “Now you will show your knowledge of that shout.  Watch.”  </p><p>One of the Greybeards step in-between the pillars as Borri Shouts at the gates to open.  The Greybeard next to Leytiri Shouts and suddenly he has disappeared from her side!  She looks up and realizes that he has moved past the gates and they have now closed behind him.  Arngeir points to her, “it is now your turn!  Shout the word for Whirlwind in the dragon language and you will go past those gates too.” </p><p>Borri turns towards the gates and Leytiri prepares herself, thinking of the word whirlwind.  Before the gates are even completely open she Shouts and bursts forward in tremendous speed, only stopping when the Greybeard standing there grabs the back of her armor before she goes tumbling off the edge of the mountain.  </p><p>Arngeir laughs.  “I can see that you are excited to prove yourself.  Now there is one last thing you must do for your trial. You must go to Ustengrav and retrieve the Horn of Jorgen Windcaller.  It is an ancient Greybeard artifact and you must go get it before your training can resume.”</p><p>Leytiri stares at him for a long time as the other Greybeards step back into the warmth of the castle.  Another mission?  Fuck!</p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Away to Ustengrav</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know this was going to be the quest in Ustengrav but I got so into Leytiri's thought process as she ventures there that this got longer than I thought it would.  Ustengrav will be next chapter.  </p><p>Warnings for this chapter include some language and violence.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Fuck!”  </p><p>Leytiri rips her boot out of the mud and water for what feels like the hundredth time.  She’d never been to the marshy wilderness of Morthal and, by the gods, she would never come back again.  She couldn’t believe that people wanted to live in this type of filth.  Bugs, giant spiders, muddy water, disgusting!  </p><p>Hadn’t she already dealt with enough?  </p><p>First she had stood gobsmacked as Arngeir told her that she must go to Ustengrav to to get a Horn.  Then she had to walk all the way down that fucking mountain again.  Then she had to fight another bear before she got back to town.  Then she had to walk all the way back to Whiterun and on the road she had to fight bandits and even a necromancer.  </p><p>After a well deserved sleep at the inn in Whiterun, Leytiri forked over the fifty gold for a ride in the carriage to Morthal.  She didn’t like spending that much gold but she liked less the idea of walking all the way there.  It was a pleasant ride indeed, she’d laid down some furs that Arngeir gave her and had a nice, relaxing, kind of bumpy ride to Morthal.  But her welcome to the town wasn’t nearly as pleasant.  </p><p>Upon entering a dragon attacked.  Though frightened again, Leytiri didn’t hide.  Instead she used her Shouts to lure it to the ground, and she and the guards killed it with bows and swords.  She didn’t feel guilty about using her sword either.  Maybe her vows could change, maybe.  Maybe she could use a weapon on beasts and only on people so that they don’t suffer through the pain of a magical death.  Yes, that’s what she could do.  </p><p>Leytiri stops and gulps hard.  Prentis would hate her.  It’s been, what, two weeks?  Maybe three, since she left the Order.  And she was already slaughtering people with a weapon.  The Zyon was right about her.  They were all right, she didn’t belong.  </p><p>Trying to push that thought out of her mind she continues walking in the direction that Arngeir told her Ustengrav would be.  She hoped that she wouldn’t have to fight anymore people, so that she wouldn’t have to put her vows to the test again.  Her foot gets caught in another pile of mud and she pulls it out hard, barely losing her boot in the process.  </p><p>She glances up and sees a ruin, that must be it!</p><p>“Hey!  Who’s there!”  </p><p>Three bandits and a necromancer run towards her and she shoots out a flame atronach.  Her hand wraps around the hilt of her sword and she draws it as the atronach shoots balls of flame at their four enemies.  The archer goes down before Leytiri can even reach them.  One of the bandits turns towards the atronach instead of Leytiri, probably judging her not to be too much trouble due to her size, and she takes that moment to plunge her sword through his back into his heart.  </p><p>The man starts to choke on his blood and she quickly slides her dagger across his throat, sending up a silent apology for what she had to do.  She grabs her sword and tries to pull it out of the mans back but she’s unable to.  Instead, she clutches the dagger tighter and slides it home into the back of the necromancers neck.  As she does, the atronach sends one final fireball at the last bandit, killing him.  </p><p>The atronach disappears as Leytiri wipes her dagger clean.  They both killed two of them!  She was getting better.  She wasn’t good, but she was getting better.  It takes her some time to yank her sword out of the bandit but she finally manages to.  She tries to ignore the blood running along half the length of the sword.  </p><p>She kneels down next to the second man that she killed and puts her hand on his back.  She felt strange.  All her life she wanted to do this.  She wanted to be allowed freedom from the Order.  She wanted to fight bandits because they were bad people and she wanted to protect the people who couldn’t protect themselves.  But now?  Now she wished that she’d never killed Tovarr, the prick.  He deserved it, he did, but she didn’t deserve this.  </p><p>Would she still be the Dragonborn if she never left the Order?  Maybe, maybe not.  </p><p>But the Order was safe and that’s what Leytiri wants right now.  When she was a little girl she had nightmares about what happened to her people.  Every night she would dash to Prentis’s room and ask to sleep in his bed.  She liked to stroke his blonde beard, streaked with silver, as she fell asleep.  She hadn’t done that in about ten years or so but right now all she wanted was to lay in his bed and let him comfort her.  Though admittedly, his hair looked more silver streaked with blonde at this point.  </p><p>She hoped that he was okay, he always was quiet, and kept to himself.  </p><p>Trying to shrug off the guilt, Leytiri rises and takes the valuables from the bodies.  They wouldn’t need them where they’re going, but she might.  She steps through the rest of the camp and finds a tomato, which she eats, and a chest full of gold, a dagger, and a helmet.  Even more exciting she finds some Deathbell.  Even since she was a child she always thought they were pretty.  And damn useful in a potion as well.  </p><p>Unfortunately she didn’t have many health potions right now.  The shops in Whiterun didn’t have much since she took it all before she left to the mountain and she didn’t even stop to see if there even was an alchemist shop in Morthal.  No, she’d have to be very careful in Ustengrav.  </p><p>Speaking of Ustengrav…</p><p>Leytiri turns in the direction of the ruin and walks up the side of it to look down.  Down the steps she can see two dead bandits that she certainly didn’t kill.  She hoped that they were killed by the bandits that she and her atronach killed but there was no way to know.  What she really hoped was that there was nothing in that ruin that was going to give her trouble.  </p><p>She snorts.  Yeah, like that would ever happen.  She’s far too unlucky for that.  </p><p>Taking a deep breath Leytiri carefully walks down the steps into the ruin and pushes open the door.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. The Horrors of Ustengrav</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter was so fun to write I couldn't believe how many words it turned out to be.  I hope you all enjoy and I'll try to get the next chapter out soon.  </p><p>Warnings include some violence and language.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Stepping into Ustengrav, Leytiri immediately crouches down.  She can hear people ahead of her already.  Slowly, she inches forward down some stairs past a dead bandit.  In front of her she can see at least three people but she can’t make out what they’re wearing.  Are they bandits?  Necromancers?  Something worse?  </p><p>Leytiri holds up her hands and lets the magic swirl.  She was really starting to enjoy her atronach, it was the most powerful spell she knew.  She wished that she could turn invisible and go past these guys but there was no way she could keep up something that powerful.  Nor did she have much faith in her sneakiness abilities.  No one she’d ever met could trip on air quite as well as she could.  </p><p>As she makes her way further down the stairs, she can hear a man say something about thralls.  Shivering, the only thing Leytiri can think of is that these people are vampires.  She’d never met one, and didn’t really want to now.  A hoard of bandits is one thing, a hoard of blood sucking demons is something else.  </p><p>Forcing away a sigh, Leytiri gets to the bottom of the steps and approaches the wall to the right.  There’s a set of steps to the left but it doesn’t look like there’s anything up there.  The only way forward is to, well, go forward past the vampires.  She’d have to fight them, like it or not.  </p><p>Laying in the corner is a dead bandit with gashes in his neck.  Leytiri forces back a gag.  Poor soul.  </p><p>The man or vampire or thrall or thing says something again, to which a woman replies for him to go check it out.  Leytiri hopes they don’t mean her.  Gods, what is wrong with her?  She’d killed quite a few beasts since all this shit started, what was a couple vampires compared to fucking dragons?  </p><p>Leytiri inches around the corner but she doesn’t see anyone.  There’s a table with food and potions on it but no one is there.  There’s a hole in the wall and she figures that they must have walked through there.  Perhaps she was foolish to let them go, there were likely others, especially thralls wherever they went.  As quickly as she dares she makes her way over to the table and throws the food and potions into her bag.  </p><p>Next to the table sits a chest and she cracks it open.  A small handful of gold, robes, and some very, very, nice Dwarven boots sit in there.  She immediately removes her mud soaked boots and replace them with the fancy looking ones.  They’re quite heavy but they’re comfortable and offers her feet more protection.  </p><p>As she makes her way into the hole and down the steps she can hear several voices ahead of her.  They start fighting something and one of them steps into the room she’s in and sees her.  He shouts and she shoots a flame atronach out at him and he, three other vampires, and a familiar all try to kill the atronach.  The familiar falls first, and then two of the male vampires die before the atronach finally disappears.  Leytiri shoots flames from both hands at the remaining two vampires, knowing that she doesn’t have enough strength yet to recall her atronach.  </p><p>The vampire that initially entered the room dies first, screaming, burning to the ground.  The other, a woman, is much tougher.  She shoots ice at Leytiri and she falls to the ground in pain.  She quickly swallows a health potion as the vampire advances on her.  Gripping her sword, she Shouts at the vampire and at the same time swings up with the sword and slices through her neck.  </p><p>Leytiri watches as the vampire falls to the floor, blood gushing, nearly decapitated from the swing.  Leytiri’s stomach rolls and suddenly she throws up all over the vampires body.  She’d eaten a tomato right before entering the ruin and Leytiri was thoroughly disturbed to see the chewed up red mess along with everything else in her stomach on the corpse.  </p><p>Knowing that there could be more danger ahead, she crouches back down and makes her way further into the ruin, trying hard not to think about the poor dead vampire, with blood and vomit covering her body.  Leytiri had seen a lot in her life, but that was new.  </p><p>As she enters the next room she sees a a ledge to her right with potions and a book on it.  She quickly pockets all of them and continues further into the room.  Directly ahead of her there’s a doorway and she can hear a mans voice coming from it.  Rather than go that way she enters a room to her left and sees two rooms full of burial urns.  </p><p>Her stomach rolls again as she thinks about what she’s going to have to do.  She’s low on health potions and she also knows that some people bury potions with their dead.  Slowly and quietly, she makes her way through the rooms, stealing potions and jewelry and money out of the urns.  It makes her sick, she wished she could leave the dead in peace.  But she also knew that if she didn’t take the potions she’d be joining the dead.  And if she didn’t have the money she wouldn’t survive very long out in the real world.  She needed food and sleep and clothes, the dead didn’t.  </p><p>Still… she felt guilty.  And sick.  </p><p>Leytiri turns left out of the urn room and into another room where three skeletons lie. On the table behind them sits a brazier and two potions.  She stuffs them into her bag, trying not to think about the terrible fate that befell the people behind her.  Remaining in a crouched position, she continues down the hallway into another room.  As she enters, two coffins burst open and two draugr climb out.  </p><p>The magic swirls in Leytiri’s hand and she shoots an atronach at the two draugr.  One of them shoots ice balls at the atronach while the other swings at it with a sword.  While the two are distracted Leytiri sends fireball spells at them and they quickly fall under the combined spells.  </p><p>Leytiri smiles, she was really starting to like that atronach.  It was powerful, and she had to do a little bit less work.  She smiles even wider when she finds an amethyst on one of the bodies.  Amazing!  </p><p>As she makes her way through the room she passes a draugr that neither she nor the atronach killed.  She loots his body and finds another amethyst.  Wonderful!  Maybe when she finished up her Dragonborn duties she really could buy a house and start her own alchemy shop.  Who knew how long she’d be doing her Dragonborn thing for though, or if she would even survive.  </p><p>Gods, she hoped that didn’t happen.  She just wanted peace.  Boring, happy peace.  </p><p>She passes a table with a helmet on it and she grabs it.  It wasn’t nearly as nice as the one she currently wore, but it would sell for a decent price.  She spies a doorway and she walks through it and up the steps.  When she gets to the second floor she notices a chest that has a scroll and some gold in it.  </p><p>Leytiri continues across a pathway and down some steps to a door, which she pushes open.  As the door slams behind her she notices that it’s awfully windy down here, and it suddenly got much, much colder.  She shivers and rubs her arms for a few seconds before gritting her teeth.  Time to get down to business and get the fuck out of this creepy ruin.  </p><p>Slowly, she tiptoes down the stairs and peers around a corner just as a draugr holding an axe leaps out at her.  She holds up her left arm to fend off the blow as her right arm lifts to shoot flames at it.  The draugr screams but she doesn’t let up until it falls.  Heaving a sigh she looks down at it.  It took so long to kill it with her flames, but the atronach takes up so much of her magic.  </p><p>Her arm hurts where it hit her, and a little bit of blood is sliding down her skin, so she uses a healing spell to cure it.  It still hurts after, but it’s no longer bleeding.  Sighing again, she turns back to the steps.  She passes through a room uneventfully until she comes to four squares.  </p><p>Two of the squares have white diamonds on them, the other two red.  Leytiri knows that this must be a trap but the only question is which color is the trap and which one is safe.  Rather than guessing, and likely ending up dead as a result, she steps back and throws an apple onto the red diamonds.  They shoot up flames and she smiles at them.  Just to be safe, she throws another apple onto the white diamonds that have no reaction.  Perfect!  </p><p>She bi-passes the apple that she tossed onto the white diamonds as she crosses.  No way is she putting something that’s touched this floor in her mouth.  </p><p>Continuing further down the hallway she turns left and spots a dead draugr laying on a pathway going across to the other side of the room.  She hesitates, knowing that they could really be “alive” when they look dead dead.  But as she approaches the draugr, it doesn’t move.  Footsteps down below draws her eyes and she spots a draugr moving around in a dining room type area.  She quickly pulls off her bow and notches an arrow.  </p><p>Leytiri aims for the draugr’s head but when she shoots it hits it in the chest.  The draugr falls to the ground and she shoots another arrow at it to make sure it’s dead.  She needed to get better at shooting a bow, she killed it regardless but it was pathetic that she missed her target by that much.  A second draugr lurches through the doorway and shoots up a ice spell at her.  She backs up and sends out an atronach to fight against it.  </p><p>As her atronach sends fireballs at the draugr she also shoots arrows at it.  The beast is tough, it takes much longer to kill than the last two draugr did but eventually it does fall to the arrows and flame.  Hoping that there are no more, Leytiri continues further into the room.  </p><p>Once she gets downstairs she finds a room full of shelves with a chest and some potions.  She pockets the gold, potions, and even a garnet.  She backs up and heads back to the big dining room.  On the tables lay piles of cheese wheels and a couple leeks and a tomato.  Her stomach churns at the sight of the tomato and she turns towards the cheese.  </p><p>Obviously there were more people here, other than the ones she killed earlier.  Draugr had no use for food, especially yummy food like cheese.  She looks at the cheese wheels longingly.  It was tempting to take them but she couldn’t help a nagging thought that she had no idea where that food came from or what could have been done to it.  These may be vampires after all.  </p><p>Oh gods, what if they… what if they somehow put blood in the cheese?  Leytiri’s stomach churns again.  No, no thank you.  </p><p>No longer finding the cheese appetizing, Leytiri starts down the hallway and up some stairs to another pathway which she crosses.  As she makes her way down the stairs her nose crinkles.  Oil.  Yuck.  Or perhaps good, if there are draugr down there she could ignite the oil and burn them all.  </p><p>As she steps into the next room she finds oil on the floor and two draugr burst from coffins.  She waits, patient, as they start to walk towards her.  As soon as they step onto the oil she shoots a single fireball at it and it immediately engulfs the pair in flames.  They both scream and try to dash towards her but they crumble down to ash.  </p><p>To her left, Leytiri can see a barred room with a chest and enchanting table.  As she approaches the room she can see that there’s a switch beside the door.  Happily, she strides forward and flips the switch.  Only one of the gates opens.  She looks around the room and spots another switch.  Fucking Dwemer, or whoever thought it would be funny to put two switches in the same room.  She flips the second switch and quickly shoves a soul gem, gold, and a dagger into her bag.  </p><p>Turning around she rushes out of the room and down another hallway.  She can’t wait to get out of this god forsaken place.  She steps out of the hallway into a giant cavern.  The wind is even more heavy down here and at the bottom of the cavern she could see a waterfall.  Sighing, she starts down the path.  Quite frankly this looks like a place Falmer would hang out.  </p><p>She doesn’t make it far before two skeletons attack her but she makes short work of them with her flames.  As she goes further down the stairs five more skeletons attack and she shoots out another flame atronach to take care of them.  They all fall quickly to its spells.  She swiftly clears the room of all valuables, including a nice potion for archery.  </p><p>She looks down a pathway and up another.  She doesn’t know which way to go but decides down would probably be the better choice.  When in doubt in a scary, dark dungeon, the enemy is probably in the lowest part of the place.  </p><p>As Leytiri walks down the stairs she can hear a voice in the back of her head.  Before it had scared her, now it delighted her.  It was the dragon language, maybe she would learn a new word.  Picking up her pace she climbs down the stairs faster and faster, not even worried about enemies.  She gets to the bottom of the stairs and despite the noise of the waterfall the dragon singing is louder.  </p><p>She steps towards a stone pedestal and sees glowing blue writing on the wall of it.  Confidently she walks towards her and the letters on the wall shoot out of the wall at her in a gust of wind and enters her body.  As it does a word forms in her brain, Fade.  She’s not quite sure what it means, but Arngeir will know.  </p><p>Quickly, Leytiri explores the entire bottom of the cavern but finds nothing, not even another skeleton.  It appears she was wrong about the enemy being down at the bottom but she definitely was glad to be wrong this time.  She makes her way back up the stairs and up the pathway she bi-passed to go down.  As she nears the top, however, she crouches down and starts to move slowly again.  Who knows what enemies she could face now.  </p><p>As she steps onto the landing she sees a few stones and as she passes one it glows red.  The gate in front of her opens and as she steps towards it the second stone glows and the second gate opens.  Hesitating, she steps towards the third stone which starts to glow and the third gate opens.  Giggling, she starts towards the opened gates but she doesn’t make it far before they close again.  </p><p>Frowning, Leytiri circles around the stones and goes through again but she doesn’t make it far past the third stone before the gates close a second time.  She sighs, what the hell is she doing wrong?  She tries a third time, and a fourth, to no avail.  She drums her fingers on her arms, frustrated.  </p><p>Suddenly, she thinks about the Shout that Arngeir told her about.  The one that gave her a big burst of speed.  Perhaps that would work, if she got a running start.  She quickly goes back to the first stone and crouches down, ready to sprint through.  She takes a deep breath, readying her Shout.  </p><p>Launching forward, she dashes through the stones and immediately once the gates are all open she Shouts and bursts through to the other side.  Adrenaline pumping, she forces herself from shouting for joy.  She sure never wanted to do that again.  What if she got stuck?  </p><p>Up the stairs Leytiri can see fire burning in a brazier and she crouches down again.  Who knows what’s up there?  Or worse, who.  </p><p>Slowly, she climbs the stairs until she comes upon a room with the same diamond shaped traps as before.  Quickly, she makes her way through them, not wanting to set the fire trap off.  She doesn’t make it far before a giant spider rushes towards her, she shoots off an atronach that lands on top of a red diamond.  Leytiri throws herself onto a further white diamond to escape the flames.  </p><p>The spider dies fast, and Leytiri dashes forward onto a platform as the atronach follows behind.  As soon as she lands on the platform three more spiders appear and she and the atronach quickly kill them using the flame spells.  Seconds afterwards the atronach disappears.  Leytiri wipes sweat off her forehead, this was getting to be a bit too much.  </p><p>She moves forward and shoots flames at a pile of webbing covering a door.  She walks through the door, not even pretending to be sneaky anymore.  The whole place knows she’s here by now anyway.  When she gets to the end of the path she finds a gate with a chain next to it and she pulls it.  </p><p>As she steps onto the landing a grumbling sound fills the room and Leytiri watches, horrified, as four giant shapes emerge from the water.  It takes her a few seconds to realize that they are statues and not giant enemies for her to fight.  At that point, if they were, she would turn around and run away.  She’d climb that fucking mountain again and tell Arngeir he could find himself another Dragonborn.   </p><p>Cautiously Leytiri walks down the steps and past the shapes, half expecting them to shoot lightning at her or something else.  As she passes them they don’t do anything so she hurries to the chest, ready to get her hands on that Horn so she can get out of there.  But when she gets to it she finds a note.  Knowing that she’s not going to like this she picks it up.  </p><p>On it, a “friend” says that they need to speak to the Dragonborn at the inn in Riverwood.  </p><p>Trying not to cry out in frustration, Leytiri pockets the note and opens the chest, finding nothing inside.  Someone came here, killed the draugr in this fucking room but not in the rest of the place, and stole the Horn before she could get to it.  What in the absolute fuck.  Leytiri kicks the chest and storms towards the door behind it.  </p><p>Whoever this person was, they were no friend.</p>
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<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Meetings in the Dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi guys!  </p><p>Warnings for this chapter include some language.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leytiri crouched, cold and hungry, staring at the inn in Riverwood.  After leaving Ustengrav she walked back through the swampy area to Morthal.  There she slept like the dead and ate her fill of fish and bread and soup.  The only thing that would have made the evening perfect was some duck, gods she loved it when Prentis brought her duck.  But now, now she’s sitting in the damp, dark night staring at a door.  </p><p>Feeling lazy, she’d spent the coin to get a carriage ride back to Whiterun and sold some of the goodies she found in the dungeon.  She obviously didn’t count her coins but she knew she had to have at least a few thousand of them by now.  Fifty or so wasn’t too bad to part with, especially when she got a comfortable ride.  </p><p>Since the carriage doesn’t go to Riverwood Leytiri needed to walk.  It wasn’t such a terrible thing, the path from Whiterun to Riverwood.  She picked flowers, she fought a wolf much easier then she had the first time along that road, and she hummed her favorite song under her breath.  It was almost like she wasn’t afraid there was some deadly foe sitting in the inn at this very moment.  </p><p>But now, that feeling was back with full force.  </p><p>What kind of friend would steal the artifact that she spent hours trying to find down there?  If they were a friend wouldn’t they have alerted her to their presence?  Worst of all, what did it say about Leytiri, that she completely missed this person as she oh so carefully made her way throughout the dungeon just so she wouldn’t miss anything important?  </p><p>Sighing, she stands and shakes out both of her feet.  For good measure she wiggles her butt a little too, it wouldn’t be any good if they’re still asleep if she has to make a break for it.  But the time had come for her to approach the inn, she wasn’t going to find out who had been with her in Ustengrav if she didn’t go in there.  Was this person really a friend or not?  She lets her magic crackle in her left hand for a few seconds before she makes it quit.  If this person was not a friend they would regret stealing that artifact.  </p><p>Leytiri tries to forget that she herself had been trying to steal the artifact in the first place.  Was it even stealing for her?  Arngeir told her to get it.  She doubted that would matter much to guards and Jarls.  </p><p>Slowly, Leytiri walks to the door and grabs the handle.  She throws up a quick prayer before she pushes it open.  As she enters she can hear soft, pretty music playing.  But she quickly stops thinking about that when she sees a woman sitting near the door, staring at her.  The only other person in the room is a local, Sven, and the bartender. </p><p>As she approaches the woman, she clears her throat.  “Excuse me?”  </p><p>The woman cocks her eyebrow.  “I’m the innkeeper, Delphine.  Would you like to rent a room for the night?”</p><p>Leytiri thinks back to the note she found at Ustengrav.  It told her to rent the attic room at the inn.  “Um.. I would like to rent a room, please.  The attic room.”  </p><p>Delphine’s eyebrow disappears into her hairline.  “The attic room?  We don’t have one of those.  Take the room on the left.  Ten gold.”  </p><p>Embarrassed, Leytiri quickly hands her the gold and marches to the room, shutting the door behind her.  She sits on the bed and reaches into her bag, looking for some of the food she bought at Whiterun.  Who knew how long she’d have to wait.  </p><p>Before she can even take a single bite out of the sweet roll, footsteps approach the door and it swings open.  Delphine stands before her.  </p><p>“You’re the Dragonborn, huh?  This is what you’re here for.”  Delphine hands Leytiri the horn that she’d been looking for in Ustengrav.  “Follow me, we have much to discuss, Leytiri.”  </p><p>Shocked, but silently, Leytiri shoves the horn into her bag before slinging it over her shoulder to follow Delphine.  The room across from hers is open and Leytiri follows reluctantly.  She didn’t like the idea of going further into the inn but she needed answers.  Maybe Arngeir will be curious why someone would steal the horn.  </p><p>As Leytiri enters the room Delphine look at her.  “Close the door.”  </p><p>Even more reluctantly, Leytiri does as she’s asked.  She feels like a fool, this could be incredibly dangerous but her curiosity is killing her.  Hopefully her curiosity wouldn’t actually kill her. </p><p>When the door is closed tight Delphine opens up a wardrobe that is hiding a secret passageway going downstairs.  “Good, we can talk now.”  </p><p>Leytiri considers running outside and going back to the mountain.  Climbing that gods forsaken mountain sounded better than possibly climbing down those creepy stairs to a dungeon in the dark.  But the less rational part of her brain wins out, she starts to walk down the stairs.  At the bottom she spots multiple chests, shelves with potions on them, training dummies, and in the middle of the room a table with a book and a map on it.  Not quite the hellhole that she thought it would be.  </p><p>Delphine approaches the table.  “So, you are the Dragonborn, or so the Greybeards claim.”</p><p>Not feeling overly confident with what Delphine said, Leytiri raises her eyebrow.  “So, you took the horn?”</p><p>Delphine sighs.  “Yes, I took the horn.  I’ve been playing the harmless innkeeper act for a long time.  It felt good to get out of here and go to Ustengrav.  My apologies for the cloak and dagger, there are spies everywhere in this world.  Thalmor spies.”</p><p>Leytiri winces and waits for a glare or snarl, but it doesn’t come.  Whenever people talked about the Thalmor in the Order she and Caltar would sometimes get glared at, as if they were Thalmor themselves.  Caltar was used to it and, though gruff, he understood why it made her angry.  He always counseled her to forgive them, they knew not what they spoke of.  As of yet, she couldn’t.  They were all fucking assholes for thinking that she was like the Thalmor.  </p><p>But Leytiri clears her throat.  “What do you want with me exactly?”</p><p>Delphine puts her hands on the table.  “I am not your enemy, Leytiri.  I gave you the horn, I just want your help.  I am a member of a group that has been looking for you or others like you for a long time.  I just need to know if I can trust you.”</p><p>Suddenly frustrated, Leytiri fires back.  “How do I know I can trust you!?  You stole the horn.  Why did you take it!?”</p><p>Delphine cocks her eyebrow again.  “If you didn’t trust me, you wouldn’t be here.  Would you?”  Leytiri nods tightly.  “Good.  I took the horn because I knew that they would send you to Ustengrav, those old fools are always predictable.  And I wanted to speak to the Dragonborn.”</p><p>Leytiri shakes her head.  “Why do you want the Dragonborn exactly?”</p><p>Delphine lays her hand on the map.  “Can you take a dragons soul?  When you kill it, can you draw its soul into your body?”  </p><p>Remembering killing the dragons at Whiterun and Morthal, she nods.  “Yes, I killed a dragon over at Whiterun and it was like, I sucked its soul into mine.”  </p><p>Delphine doesn’t look quite convinced.  “You will prove it to me soon enough I supposed.  I want you to go to Kynesgrove with me.  There is a ancient burial ground there, if there is a dragon there that has yet to rise we will kill it.  And you will show me your power to, ah, suck its soul into your soul or whatever.”  </p><p>As she talks, Delphine starts putting on armor and Leytiri holds up her hands.  “Wait a minute!  I have to take this horn to the Greybeards, I can’t just go wandering off with you, a stranger, to some grove to fight a dragon that may not even be there.  And if it is there it may not even be alive.”  </p><p>Eyebrow raised, again, Delphine merely nods.  “By all means, take the horn to those old fools.”  Leytiri bristles, she liked the Greybeards.  “But when you are done meet me in Kynesgrove and I promise I will tell you everything you want to know afterwards.” </p><p>Flabbergasted, Leytiri watches as Delphine, fully armed, walks back up the stairs and starts talking to the barkeeper.  Slowly, she walks around the room and puts the potions and ingredients in her bag.  This was getting out of hand.  </p><p>This was getting so out of hand.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you all liked this chapter!  I wanted to include her taking the horn to Arngeir and the Greybeards but the chapter was getting a little too long to do this PLUS have Leytiri travel back to the mountain, climb it, and speak to all of them.  Next chapter I may or may not involve Prentis again, it's been awhile since we've seen his depressive moping.  But things will be changing for him soon, really soon.</p><p>Anyways!  I hope you all enjoyed and I'll try to post the next chapter within the week.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. The Voice of the Greybeards</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>No warnings for this chapter.  I hope you all enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leytiri stands outside of High Hrothgar, hesitating.  She doesn’t know how they will feel about the Horn being stolen, if they even know about it.  They seem to know an awful lot about what’s going on in the world, they kept a pretty close eye on her when they suspected she was a Dragonborn.  Perhaps they already know about Delphine stealing the Horn.  Maybe they’ll tell her she was reckless and that she hadn’t been careful enough at Ustengrav.  Maybe she doesn’t deserve to be a Dragonborn after she failed to notice Delphine sneaking around in the dungeon with her.  </p><p>That hurt her, though she tried to push that pain aside.  All her life she wanted to be special, to be the greatest Illusion mages that ever lived.  She wanted to be just like Prentis.  She didn’t actually want to be the Zyon no, she just wanted to be special.  But after what happened with Tovarr she knew that she didn’t deserve to be special.  He deserved what he got but she no longer deserved to be special.  She just wanted to leave Skyrim and open up her own apothecary.  Lead a simple life.  </p><p>But now Leytiri is the Dragonborn.  It was thrust upon her.  Before, back in the Order, she would have loved to be the Dragonborn.  She would have gloated about it to no end.  Now she wonders if she’s really special enough to be the Dragonborn, now she wonders if she deserves it at all.  </p><p>Sighing, she puts her hand on the door.  She needs to just get it over with.  The Greybeards asked her to do one thing and she couldn’t even manage to do that.  She lost the horn to Delphine, it doesn’t matter that she has it now.  What if they can’t trust her anymore?  Does she even deserve their faith anymore?  Did she deserve it before now?  </p><p>Taking a deep breath and exhaling loudly, Leytiri pushes the door open.  It’s warm inside, and she lets the door close behind her with a clang.  Several of the Greybeards are sitting in the front room, meditating, but none of them look up when she comes in.  She notices that none of them are Arngeir.  One of them lifts his hand and points to the stairs to her right.  Following his direction, she walks up the stairs, turns left, and sees a Greybeard kneeling at the top of a small, narrow staircase.  Taking another breath, she starts up the stairs towards him.  </p><p>Arngeir stands and turns towards her, a broad smile on her face.  “You have passed the trial.  Give me the Horn.”  Leytiri passes it, before wiping her sweaty hands off on her thighs.  “Come, let us recognize you formally as the Dragonborn.”  </p><p>Leytiri steps aside to let Arngeir past her and she follows him down the stairs.  He walks slowly but she doesn’t mind, in fact she’s quite nervous about what is going to happen now.  She is the Dragonborn and they already know she is, what do they mean by recognizing her formally?  Were they going to Shout down the mountain?  That seemed silly, there probably weren’t many people down there that knew the dragon language.  What does he mean? </p><p>As they step back into the main room Leytiri sees three Greybeards standing in a triangle.  Arngeir joins them, forming a square.  Nervous, Leytiri knows that she’s supposed to stand in the middle.  She approaches them slowly.    </p><p>Arngeir nods to her.  “You are ready to learn the final word of unrelenting force.  It is called ‘Dah’, which means push in the dragon tongue.  With all three words together this Shout will be very powerful, be wise when you use it.”  </p><p>One of the Greybeards moves forward and Shouts the word into the ground and she watches as the word etches into the stone floor, glowing a pretty red.  She steps towards it and, like last time, feels something being rushed into her body, into her very soul.  </p><p>Arngeir bows his head towards her.  “Now, we shall Speak to you.  Stand in-between us.  Very few can withstand the Voice of the Greybeards but you are ready.”</p><p>Not giving her time to prepare herself, all four Greybeards start speaking in the dragon language.  The voices are deep and scratchy, and a blue-ish light comes off of them as they speak.  Leytiri isn’t sure of everything that they say, but she does hear the word Dovahkiin a couple times.  She knows that means Dragonborn.  </p><p>As quick as they started, they stop, and Arngeir smiles his soft, Prentis-like smile at her.  “Dovahkiin, you have tasted our Voice and are unscathed.  You are welcome here, whenever you wish.  If you are weary, you may rest here.  If you need a wise ear to listen, we shall hear your Voice.  High Hrothgar will always be open to you.”  </p><p>Suddenly emotional, Leytiri swallows down a lump in her throat.  She had been welcome in the Order but it didn’t compare.  Not like this.  “Thank you Arngeir.  Can… can I sleep here for the night?  If that’s not too much trouble?” </p><p>He smiles at her again and Leytiri feels the need to rush into his arms.  She refrains, of course, but he just keeps reminding her again and again of Prentis.  “Thank you, again.  But before I sleep, can you tell me why I’m the Dragonborn?”</p><p>Arngeir closes his eyes for a second before opening them, slightly bright eyed.  “No one knows why a Dragonborn appears in history when they do.  Some say the Dragonborn only comes to the world when it is in its most desperate need.  Now that the dragons are waking up, I would say that the world needs a Dragonborn most desperately.  As to why it is you, who are the Dragonborn, I don’t know.  That question is within your blood, and I fear I don’t have the answer.”  </p><p>Leytiri drops her head but Arngeir almost immediately lifts it up with his finger.  “What I do know is that you deserve to be the Dragonborn, it is who you are, who you always have been.  You can not escape your destiny.”  </p><p>Feeling tears prickle at the corner of her eyes, Leytiri throws herself into Arngeir’s arms.  “Ooomph!”  </p><p>To her surprise he doesn’t push her away, he merely puts his hands on her back and pats her awkwardly.  Leytiri almost expects him to say, ‘there, there’.  That makes her giggle a little and now she’s afraid that he’ll think she’s insane.  But he merely pats her back again as she pulls away.  </p><p>Clearing her throat, Leytiri looks around her.  “I’m sorry, you just remind me of someone.”  </p><p>Arngeir points down a hallway.  “That is the way to the bed-quarters, follow me.  May I ask, is the person I resemble your father?”  </p><p>Leytiri follows Arngeir at a slower pace and hesitates before answering.  “I don’t know who my father is, my mother never told me.  When I asked her she would get very secretive and tell me that my father loved me, but he couldn’t build a family with us for some reason.  I always assumed he was a noble.  No, the man you make me think of is the man who basically raised me after my mother died.  His name is Prentis.”  </p><p>Arngeir stops in a room filled with beds and he points at one.  “That can be yours.  You said Prentis?  Do you mean Prentis Lovrik?”  </p><p>Leytiri sits down on the bed and stares up at the Greybeard, amazed.  “Do you know Prentis?  He’s a father figure to me.”  </p><p>Arngeir nods and laces his fingers together and Leytiri tries to stifle another giggle.  They even have the same mannerisms.  “I met him a long time ago, when he was barely more than a boy.  His father wanted him to learn how to Shout.  He was unsuccessful but, then again, he was just a lad back then.  I thought he showed promise, and invited him to come back again.  He never did.”  </p><p>Smiling, Leytiri runs her hands over the soft blankets.  “No, he’s a mage now.  He’s a Master in the Order of the Seven.  The Illusions Master.”  </p><p>Arngeir freezes and stares at her, bewildered.  “Did you just say the Order of the Seven?”  </p><p>Leytiri nods, confused, what could be wrong with that?  “Yes.  He’s a Master of the Order.  Why?  What’s wrong with that?”  </p><p>Arngeir stares at her for a few moments more before answering.  “Nothing, nothing.”  He clears his throat.  “It is late, go on to sleep.  Goodnight.”  </p><p>Not waiting for her to respond, Arngeir practically runs out of the room.  Leytiri wants to jump up and chase him down, to demand he tell her what the big deal is about the Order.  She feels frustrated.  The Order are good people!  They embrace magic and protect people with it!  All those years ago they tried desperately to save her people, though they failed.  </p><p>She felt a strong desire to leave right then but she knew that it would be childish to do so.  A lot of people thought the Order was rigid because of their rules.  The College sounded like a much better option to most mages, and it was easier to get into.  Maybe Arngeir just thought that the Order had too many rules.  Maybe he thought the leaders were prudes, who knows.  </p><p>Leytiri would speak to Arngeir in the morning, to ask him what he knows about the Order.  Maybe she could change his mind about them, yes, that is what she would do.  She lies back onto her bed, cradling her bag, and rests her head on the hard pillow.  Yes, that is what she will do tomorrow.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Entangled in the Dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings for this chapter include some language and a sex scene.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leytiri stands just outside the Windhelm stables, breathing in the cold mountain air.  It reminded her of the mountains near Markarth, her home.  Tiny snowflakes drift past, cold enough to snow but not quite for it to stick.  The child in her wished that it would so that she could play in it.  Even at her age she liked to play and dance in the cold flurries.  Prentis was often a victim of her stuffing the snow down his robes.  He pretended to be angry at her, but he always ended up laughing.  </p><p>The memories bring a smile to Leytiri’s face.  Once, she had shoved a big pile of snow down the Zyon’s robes.  His face turned so red that she was positive that he was either going to explode or murder her.  He did neither, but he did make her suffer by forcing her to work on her destruction magic until she could conjure a fireball.  Destruction is her worst skill in magic, she didn’t get to go to sleep until after dawn.  </p><p>No more snow down his pants.  </p><p>Leytiri turns to look back at Windhelm, glad to finally be out of there.  Once she got off the mountain again she wasn’t quite ready to head for Kynesgrove.  Instead, she walked to Whiterun and hitched a ride to Windhelm.  She knew that it was the home to Ulfric Stormcloak, and she knew his people weren’t entirely welcoming of anyone that wasn’t a Nord, but she wasn’t prepared for what she walked in on when she got there.</p><p>Two men had cornered a woman and were talking about “her kind”.  Leytiri hadn’t caught the entire conversation but she got the gist of it.  The woman, a Dark Elf, turned towards her and said that the city generally only liked Nords.  They tolerated the other races but the dark elves had to live in the slums.  She was quite welcoming to Leytiri.  She suggested that Leytiri, as a High Elf, would be welcome.  </p><p>The inn in the center of town seemed warm and comfortable, but Leytiri was drawn towards the New Gnisis Cornerclub instead.  She was there to stay for a single night and didn’t want to cause any trouble.  The last thing she needed was some drunk, huffy Nord yelling at her.  As angry as she is about the treatment of the Dark Elves, she might “accidentally” set him on fire.  </p><p>So she went to the New Gnisis Cornerclub and she couldn’t believe her eyes.  There were holes in the floor and in the walls!  There was a draft and Leytiri had to put a shirt on over her armor.  But there were multiple elves there drinking, laughing, enjoying themselves.  Including one handsome Dark Elf…</p><p>Revyn asked her to join him at a table and convinced her to pay for half of a bottle of Argonian Bloodwine.  When she found out the regular price was three hundred gold she thought her eyes would fall right out of her head.  But she thought she deserved a break so she forked over the gold and proceeded to drink Revyn under the table.  It was good wine, but strong, and she had never been good about holding her liquor.  </p><p>The innkeeper helped Leytiri and Revyn up two flights of stairs to a bed and told her she could pay in the morning.  She had briefly wondered in her drunken haze where he was going to sleep, having not seen a second bed in the trip up the stairs.  But that thought left her mind quickly as she looked at Revyn.  </p><p>He was handsome and she was always fond of Dark Elves, especially Clavicus back in the Order.  He is taller than Clavicus but less fit, lean where Clavicus is more muscled.  Their eye colors were the exact shade…</p><p>Leytiri closes her eyes, savoring the memory of the night before.  </p><p>He had laid on his side, staring at her, but not touching her.  Looking at his tented pants told her that he desired her but he wasn’t going to touch her first.  She knew that if she rolled over that he would do the same.  Instead she grazed her fingertips against his jaw, down to his chest.  It was all it took.  </p><p>Hurried hands tore at Leytiri’s shirt, at her armor beneath.  Her pants got caught in their writhing legs before they were ripped from her body.  She could taste the wine on his tongue as he danced it around and around her mouth.  He pushed her legs apart and told her that now that he’d had a taste of her lips, he wanted a taste of her other ones.  She didn’t know if it was the wine or his words that turned her face as red as it did.  </p><p>Leytiri nearly levitated off of the bed when he pushed his tongue inside of her.  His hands caressed her hips, her stomach, her breasts as his long tongue speared its way in and out of her.  She couldn’t control her moans that reverberated throughout the room.  At first she tried to stay quiet, for the innkeepers sake, but Revyn was so talented with his tongue that she completely gave up trying to hold back.  Her back nearly left the bed again as her first orgasm of the night hit her.  </p><p>Revyn didn’t waste any time crawling back in-between Leytiri’s legs.  He slid her knees apart and back against her chest, positioned himself, but before he pushed inside he looked her in the eye, silently asking for permission.  Leytiri briefly thought of Tovarr but pushed that aside, not wanting to dampen the night.  The truth of the matter was that she wanted it.  She wanted him in that moment more than she’d ever wanted anything.  She nodded at him.  </p><p>He was slow, at first, as he pushed inside her.  Savoring the moment.  Leytiri had grown impatient as he slid inch by inch into her body.  And once he got all the  way in his thrusts were short and slow.  It felt good, but not what she desperately needed.  She was just about to say something when he pulled out of her almost all of the way and slammed back inside.  </p><p>It had felt like a lightning bolt had struck her, sizzling her insides and making her feel all hot and sensitive.  Her moans, which had died down, came back full force.  Revyn ran his tongue along her ear before biting it and whispering, “you like it a little rough, don’t you, my sweet?”  </p><p>Leytiri hadn’t been able to answer him as his hips pistoned back and forth.  His fingers, which were slow and gentle before, started to pinch and pull at her skin and breasts and nipples.  His teeth nipped at her lips before his tongue once more danced against her own.  Her second orgasm came quickly, her thighs trembling and jerking roughly against his hips.  But he wasn’t done.  </p><p>Revyn pulled out of Leytiri and turned her around so that she was on her front, on her hands and knees.  The image of Tovarr had filled her mind again and she forced it down once more.  Revyn was not Tovarr, this was what she wanted.  Any doubt that had entered her mind immediately left it when he pushed back inside of her.  </p><p>The room filled with the sound of wet slaps and their moans.  Leytiri no longer cared about the innkeeper and if he could hear them.  Fuck, she no longer cared if all of Windhelm could hear them.  All she cared about was her and Revyn.  </p><p>Her breasts swung as her body jerked back and forth as Revyn’s thrusts became more and more erratic.  His hands left her hips and cupped her breasts, squeezing them and pinching her nipples.  She had been disappointed when he let go of them but was filled with pleasure as one of his hands came down upon her rear end and the other grabbed her by the back of the hair.  </p><p>Normally she didn’t like sex that rough but this time… oh, it was glorious.  </p><p>One hand held Leytiri’s head back, her back in an arch, the other repeatedly came down on one of her buttocks before smacking the other.  She rocked her hips back and forth in time with Revyn’s thrusts, feeling herself getting closer and closer to the edge.  Her lips are wide open in a long, drawn out moan that she’s almost certain Ulfric can probably hear in his tower.  </p><p>Revyn yanked harder on her hair, pulling her back up against his chest, and whispered into her ear, “let go”.  </p><p>She had never had an orgasm so intense in her life.  Her head thrown back over his shoulder, her thighs trembling so badly that he had to hold her up, her insides clamping down and spasming around him, her eyes blown wide and her mouth open in a silent scream.  His body shook as he spilled an almost endless amount of his seed inside of her.  </p><p>They crashed to the bed and almost immediately fell asleep until several hours later when they awoke and did it again.  Just before dawn they did it once more.  Leytiri was almost certain the innkeeper was going to murder them when they came down in the morning.  </p><p>As she walked out the door Revyn called after her, “take the world by storm”.  Oh, she would.  </p><p>Now Leytiri stands outside of the stables, staring in the direction of Kynesgrove.  A big part of her wanted to say ‘fuck it’ and go back inside to Revyn’s warm bed.  But she knew she couldn’t do that.  She knew that she couldn’t have a regular life.  </p><p>She is the Dragonborn.  Heaving a great sigh, Leytiri walks down the steps and marches towards Kynesgrove.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm not the greatest as sex scenes (this is only like the fifth I've ever written) so I hope it was okay *fingers crossed*.  I hope everyone enjoyed and I'll be getting the next chapter out within the week.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. The Resurrection of a Dragon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings for this chapter include some violence.  Hope everyone enjoys!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leytiri kicks at the snow as she wanders down a path.  She had never been fond of the cold but she did love the soft whiteness that blanketed the earth.  If she didn’t dislike the cold so much she might wish that it would snow everyday, everywhere.  Coming up a ridge and back down she can see a house in the distance next to what looks like a farm.  Mm, she hoped it was an inn.  A steaming bowl of soup would do wonders right now.  </p><p>She knew, based on the map, that she was getting close to Kynesgrove.  She had left Windhelm less than an hour before but she could already feel the coldness seeping into her bones.  Perhaps it was time to buy some heavier armor.  Or at the least, she could wear heavier clothes under it.  She hoped she could find heavy armor while out and about or in a dungeon.  The armor at the blacksmiths store in Whiterun was expensive!  </p><p>Something flies overhead, casting a shadow, and Leytiri looks up but doesn’t see anything.  A bird, perhaps.  Likely not a dragon, they are not quiet creatures.  Getting closer to the house Leytiri can see a woman bustling around.  She can smell food on the air, bread and cheese and meat.  She takes a deep breath and grins.  She wouldn’t mind parting with a few coins for some of that.  </p><p>As Leytiri steps past the farm and raises her hand to call out the woman spots her first and freezes.  The woman comes back to her senses quickly though and shouts out to Leytiri.  “I wouldn’t go.  There’s a dragon, there is!”</p><p>Leytiri swallows hard and moves towards the woman, glancing behind the house as she does.  There is in fact a dragon circling the air in the trees not too far from the house.  She looks at the woman, who appears to be debating between running for the house or down the hill.  Before she can make that decision Leytiri grabs her arm.  </p><p>“Has a woman named Delphine showed up here?”  </p><p>The woman shrugs.  “This morning a woman passed on her way up to the dragon mound.  She didn’t say her name, I suppose she could be the Delphine you speak of.  Now I need to go, and I suggest you do the same.”  </p><p>Leytiri watches as the woman dashes for the inn.  Hopefully it wasn’t the wrong choice.  Sighing, she starts up the path at a quick pace.  She prayed the beast didn’t see her, and she prayed even harder that Delphine would be there.  So far she had killed two dragons but both times she had help from guards.  If she was on her own… she didn’t know if she could make it.  Inside of her she could feel the magic of the Shouts, wondering if they could do any real damage to an actual dragon.  </p><p>Crouching, Leytiri rushes up the hill as fast as her legs can carry her.  The black dragon continues to circle the rocks at the top.  If the beast sees her, it doesn’t show it, focusing solely on the rocks.  As silently as she can she walks to the top, keeping close to the stones, and almost walks right on top of Delphine.  Leytiri almost gasps out loud and Delphine clamps her hand down upon Leytiri’s mouth.  </p><p>“Shh!  Take cover, now!”  </p><p>The two of them crouch next to a giant stone, staring up at the dragon.  If he turns his head just a little bit to the left, he’d see them!  Leytiri wishes that the ground could swallow her up right then and there.  But the dragon doesn’t turn to them, he doesn’t react at all, he just stares at the ground in front of him.  They wait for a few seconds before the dragon opens its mouth and shouts at the ground.  </p><p>It’s loud, and frightening, but nothing comes out of the mouth.  And once the noises stop the dragon merely floats in the air, staring at the ground.  A deep voice in the air starts speaking, Leytiri catches the words “Alduin”.  A darker, deeper voice replies and she can hear the word “Sahloknir”.  Those must be the names of the two dragons. </p><p>Suddenly the black dragon turns towards Leytiri and says the word  “dovahkiin” along with some others but she doesn’t understand them.  She shakes her head, bewildered, eyes wide.  A chuckle sounds on the wind.  </p><p>“You do not know our tongue.  And you call yourself a Dovah.”  He turns away from her, back towards the grave.  “Sahloknir, krii daar joorre.”  </p><p>Leytiri doesn’t know what those words mean, but she knows it’s nothing good.  She stands, pulling her arm away from Delphine’s grip, there is no use in hiding now.  He knows they’re here.  He knows that she is here.  She steps around the rock just as Alduin flies away and Sahloknir rises into the sky.  </p><p>Delphine yanks her bow from her back and Leytiri copies her after she shoots a flame atronach into the air.  It might not do much but perhaps the dragon would be foolish enough to strike it instead of them.  At least she hoped that would be what happens.  </p><p>Leytiri and Delphine move as one in opposite directions, Leytiri into the trees and Delphine down the path a way, hoping to get the dragon caught between them.  The flame atronach stands in the middle, shooting flames up into the air.  The dragon goes back and forth between two spots, alternating between shooting flames at the two women and lunging for them with his razor sharp teeth.  All the while mocking them in their tongue, saying that they are no match.  </p><p>Arrows whizz through the air, magic sizzles as Leytiri fires off more atronachs, and a burst of flame catches Delphine’s boot on fire.  But they keep on.  Sahloknir grows angrier and angrier as the arrows pierce his scales and he shoots a blast of fire at Leytiri as she throws herself behind a rock for cover.  She skids and lands on her knees before her face slams into the ground.  She groans and lifts herself, knowing that her face and legs would be covered in bruises, but she’d be alive!  </p><p>Delphine lets out a fierce war cry and rushes towards the dragon and Leytiri, ignoring her pain that spreads through her legs as she stands, knocks another arrow.  The dragon roars again and again as arrow after arrow pierces his body.  Delphine hacks and slashes at the dragon, screaming in anger and fear.  Leytiri reaches into her quiver and realizes that she only has three arrows left.  She must make them count.  </p><p>She knocks the next arrow, aims towards the dragons neck, and lets it fly.  At the same time Delphine grips her sword, swings it back, and lets loose an animalistic cry as she swings down the sword towards Sahloknir’s face.  The two weapons hit at the same time and the dragon rears back and roars deafeningly before he crashes back to the ground, unmoving, dead.  </p><p>Delphine laughs, “we did it!  What the?”  </p><p>Leytiri knows it is going to happen before it actually does.  The dragon, just as the two before him, started to glow and she could feel a wind blowing straight towards her.  Sahloknir has become a part of her.  She hoped that he wouldn’t be too angry about this turn of events.  She turns back to Delphine.   </p><p>Delphine’s eyes are wide, mouth open.  “So you are… you are the Dragonborn.”  </p><p>Leytiri nods, suddenly exhausted.  It takes an awful lot out of her to fight the dragons.  “Will you answer my questions now?”  </p><p>Delphine nods back.  “Anything you want.”  </p><p>“What do you want from me?”  Leytiri stares at Delphine hard.  “Who are you anyways?  You’re clearly not a normal innkeeper.”  </p><p>Delphine’s eyes widen and she lets out a laugh.  “No, I’m not a normal innkeeper.  I’m a Blade, one of the last of them actually.”  </p><p>Leytiri racks her brain, trying to remember if any of the masters at the Order taught her about what a Blade is but she can’t.  “What is that?”</p><p>Moving closer to the dead dragon, Delphine sighs.  “A long time ago we served the Dragonborn.  He, or she, was the most powerful dragon slayer.  And we helped him fight the dragons.  Now there are almost none of us left.  Now we are barely more than a memory.  Until you came along, that is.”  </p><p>Silence falls between them while Delphine stares at the dead dragon.  Leytiri feels sorry for her, and even for the dragon.  She stopped feeling sorry for herself awhile ago.  No matter how hard she fought this life, no matter how hard she fought her destiny, there was no way she possibly could.  She knew that.  Maybe that’s what Delphine felt, as a Blade, knowing she might be the last of her kind.  She lets the silence last for a few beats more.  </p><p>“So… I saw that dragon.  The black one, at Helgen.”  Leytiri prayed Delphine wouldn’t ask her why she was at Helgen.  She doubted that Delphine would be impressed by the fact that Leytiri was once a prisoner.  </p><p>Delphine looks up at her.  “Did you now?  We need answers.”  </p><p>Leytiri nods, yes, she needs answers.  “What are we going to do?” </p><p>Delphine paces back and forth in front of the dragon, tapping her fingers against the hilt of her sword.  “We’re going to Riverwood.  I think our best bet is the Thalmor.  They may be behind the dragons coming back.  Or they may know who brought them back.  We just need to get into their Embassy.”  </p><p>Leytiri grimaces, she’d hoped she wouldn’t have to face the Thalmor.  She never cared for them much.  “How do we get into the Embassy?  It’s near Solitude right?”  </p><p>Delphine nods again, heading towards the path to go back down the hill.  “Yes.  I have some ideas but we’ll speak about it in Riverwood.  Watch the skies Leytiri, be careful.”</p>
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